By Gary Parker, The Chicago Times
February 22, 2022
CHICAGO – Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot decreed Tuesday that she will end Chicago’s mask mandate and vaccine identification papers requirement for certain indoor spaces beginning next week.
According to Lightfoot, the end of the mandates will coincide with the State of Illinois’s sunset of its indoor mask mandate on Feb. 28. Yet, the Lightfoot administration will still require masks on public transit and healthcare facilities.
“Based on key data, it looks as if the worst of the Omicron surge is behind us and we will be able to safely remove these emergency measures instituted to protect the health and safety of our residents,” Mayor Lightfoot said in a statement.
The lifting of the mandates has come on the heels of a decline in positive omicron cases throughout Illinois. According to Illinois Department of Public Health data, the 7-day rolling average of positive cases in Chicago is at 1.5%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, recent reported cases nationwide reported were less than 100,000, which is a dramatic downturn from five weeks ago when the positive cases were around 800,000.
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