CHICAGO – When will the COVID mask mandate be lifted in Illinois? Maybe never … or at the very least that time of breathing freely in Illinois remains "uncertain."
The reasons Governor Pritzker is giving for not lifting the mandate – as all of the states around Illinois have already done so – are vague and confusing. They also change from time to time, but no state politicians are raising a fuss about it.
“New hospitalizations are flat. That is not a good sign. That’s not what’s happened in previous dips from surges,” Pritzker said after getting his coronavirus booster shot in Chicago Tuesday this week. “We went down for a while here, but now we’ve leveled out at a level that is much higher than the summer.”
Uh oh. Despite the fact Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, Kentucky and Wisconsin aren't masking up, Illinois is. And there's no end in sight, per the Chicago Tribune.
According to USNews, Illinois is one of a few states left with a mask mandate for all …
These are the U.S. states and territories with mask mandates for everyone, regardless of vaccination status:
District of Columbia | Guam | Hawaii | Illinois | Nevada | New Mexico | Oregon |
These are the U.S. states and territories with mask mandates for the unvaccinated:
These are the U.S. states and territories without mask mandates:
Alabama | Alaska | American Samoa |
Arizona | Arkansas | Colorado | Delaware | Florida | Georgia |
Idaho | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts
Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | New Hampshire |
New Jersey | North Carolina | North Dakota | Northern Mariana Islands | Ohio | Oklahoma |
Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah |
Vermont | Virginia | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming
