Masks

Children make masks on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, during at Kids Crafternoon at the Harvard Diggins Library. Children were able to chose between several Halloween-themed masks to make.

RSV is causing a heavy burden of pediatric hospitalizations and the percent of lab tests that are positive for RSV have been rising for 10 consecutive weeks, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health

Three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks are now optional as of Monday at most Northwestern Medicine locations across northern Illinois, confirmed a health system spokesperson.

The Justice Department is filing an appeal seeking to overturn a judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced Tuesday afternoon he was revising his executive order requiring masks on public transit, in public transit hubs, or in airports, bringing the state in line with a federal ruling from a Florida judge on Monday

A federal judge in Florida has voided the national mask mandate covering airplanes and other public transportation as exceeding the authority of U.S. health officials

The Biden administration has announced it will extend through May 3rd the nationwide mask requirement for public transit as it monitors an uptick in COVID-19 cases

Do you still have to wear a mask on a plane or train? Not for much longer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is developing guidance that will ease the nationwide mask mandate for public transit next month

The Illinois House amended COVID-19 protocols Tuesday, lifting face covering requirements following weeks of pushback from Republican members who sometimes refused to wear masks and delayed the start of session on several occasions

Face coverings will still be required in all clinical areas and when entering the Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Health and Wellness Center, but not required for vaccinated people within the fitness area.

Illinois is set to drop its statewide mask mandate Monday, marking the end of a nearly six-month period where masks were required to be worn indoors in many public places, including schools, businesses, restaurants and government chambers.

The Illinois State Supreme Court vacated the temporary restraining order on school masks issued by Judge Grischow on Friday. Gov. JB Pritzker said his school mask mandate will fall with the state indoor mask mandate, effective Monday

Come Monday, face masks will no longer be required inside the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore, though judges retain the right to require masks for court proceedings if they choose, according to a circuit court order issued Friday.

The CDC is offering a color-coded map — with counties designated as orange, yellow or green — to help guide local officials and residents. In green counties, local officials can drop any indoor masking rules. Most counties in northern Illinois are green on the CDC's map.

The statewide indoor mask mandate in Illinois will officially come off Monday, February 28, Gov. JB Pritzker said in a news release on Friday

The CDC on Friday will announce a change to the metrics it uses to determine whether to recommend face coverings, shifting from looking at COVID-19 case counts to a more holistic view of risk from the coronavirus to a community

“We are still – and I want to be very clear about this – excluding students who are testing positive for COVID-19,” said Sycamore Superintendent Steve Wilder during a COVID-19 pandemic update to the school board this week.

Days after DeKalb schools made face masks optional, the DeKalb school board Tuesday voted to give Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez authority to develop the district’s own mitigation plan in the absence of state mandates amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Individuals attending Illinois courts will no longer be required to wear masks beginning Monday, Feb. 28.

A Republican state lawmaker has sued the Illinois house speaker over face mask requirements at the state Capitol

Come Tuesday, face masks will no longer be required in DeKalb schools, though Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez said other mitigations will remain in place. “There’s no doubt that the news will create mixed feelings in our community,” she said in a letter Saturday.

A downstate appellate court has ruled Illinois' indoor mask requirement in schools has expired and therefore an appeal of a temporary restraining order barring schools from enforcing it is “moot.”

The 4th District Court of Appeals in Springfield asked attorneys in the lawsuit to explain how the vote by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules affects the lawsuit and whether the court still needs to review a temporary restraining order pertaining to the mandates.

Confusion and pushback regarding the enforcement of masks mandates spilled over onto the House Floor Wednesday afternoon during the chamber’s regular legislative session after Republicans refused to comply with face covering requirements.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the CDC wants to “give people a break from things like mask-wearing" when circumstances improve, though be able to mask up again if things worsen

Masks will be optional at La Salle-Peru High School, effective immediately.

Streator High School Principal Amy Jo Mascal said about half of students still wear masks during the school day.

As mask requirements change in DeKalb County schools, regional superintendent Amanda Christensen said the county's pool of substitute teachers has hit crisis mode. “Really, since COVID-19 hit, it’s been pretty much in a crisis state,” she said.

A legislative panel on Tuesday voted to suspend the latest version of COVID-19 mitigations for public schools, saying in part that those rules are still being litigated in a state appellate court.

The St. Charles District 303 School Board plans to ask Gov. JB Pritzker to rescind his school mask order or let it expire next month.

Numerous questions are surfacing about the updated mask policy. Here are five things to know.

This week's epidemiological report from the World Health Organization showed that case counts fell 50% in the United States and 17% worldwide. Across the U.S., COVID-19 hospitalizations have dropped nearly 30% over the past three weeks.

Mendota Elementary Superintendent K. Bradley Cox said Tuesday’s cancellation of a sixth grade volleyball game against Bureau Valley at Northbrook Middle School, after a fan from the visiting team refused to follow the school’s mask wearing rules, was an unforeseen circumstance.

Moving forward, La Salle-Peru High School will send students refusing to wear a mask home and mark them as unexcused absences.

Whether relief or cautious optimism, DeKalb County residents’ reactions to Gov. JB Pritzker’s move to lift the statewide indoor mask mandate by Feb. 28 ran the gamut Wednesday. “Let’s just try to get along," said Genoa Mayor Jonathon Brust.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s announcement on Wednesday that he will drop the indoor mask mandate on Feb. 28 is being greeted warmly in the Geneva business community.

McHenry County officials welcomed the announcement Wednesday from Gov. JB Pritzker that the indoor mask mandate will be lifted for most public places starting Feb. 28.

Through a spokesman on Wednesday, the IHSA said that while the use of masks is still encouraged, individual host venues will be able to enforce their own local rules when the governor's mask mandate lift goes into effect Feb. 28

The statewide indoor mask mandate in Illinois will be lifted on February 28, except in schools, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said during a Wednesday news conference.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker plans to reveal a phased off-ramp for his statewide mask mandate on Wednesday, according to multiple media reports.

“The decisions being made by our local school districts and how they interpret the TRO for their respective school districts is not a criminal matter that would require enforcement by the Kendall County Sheriff and/or the Kendall County State’s Attorney," the statement reads.

Illinoisans should stay tuned for an announcement on the state’s indoor mask mandate, Gov. JB Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday, although he declined to say specifically what changes might be coming.

The governors of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon announced plans to lift statewide mask requirements in schools by the end of February or March, citing the rapid easing of COVID-19′s omicron surge

Many legal experts had just as many questions as parents and school officials after a Sangamon County judge issued a temporary restraining order late Friday that some believe bars schools from enforcing the state's indoor mask requirement.

La Salle-Peru and Mendota high schools on Monday both decided to continue with the state’s COVID-19 guidelines regarding masks following a temporary restraining order issued by a Sangamon County Circuit Court last week.

A temporary stay to the governor’s mask mandate requiring face coverings in schools and weekly testing won’t impact DeKalb or Sycamore schools, officials said Sunday. Mask and testing requirements will remain in place come Monday. Here's what other districts are saying:

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday slammed a Downstate circuit court judge's.

While the McHenry County Department of Health and other local health agencies recommended the continued use of masks as part of a “layered approach” to slowing the spread of COVID-19 in schools, some McHenry County school districts decided to recommend but not require masks.

A late Friday afternoon restraining order issued by a Sangamon County Circuit Court judge sprung Illinois school districts into action, including local ones, regarding mask policies, as administrators scrambled for legal advice on how to interpret the ruling before school resumes

Dixon Public Schools Superintendent Margo Empen sent a letter to parents laying out how the district will respond to a judge's ruling Friday involving a challenge to the governor's school mask requirements