On Wednesday, February 9, Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that Illinois plans to end its indoor mask and proof-of-vaccination mandate by the end of February, assuming COVID-19 hospitalization and infection rates continue to fall.

Illinois is now the last state in the Midwest to revoke masking requirements, except in public schools. Pritzker has hinted that the mandate could be lifted in the coming weeks if rates continue their downward trajectory but the governor did not offer any specific timeline to repeal his executive order for mask mandates in schools.

Though Pritzker plans to lift Illinois’ indoor mask mandate by the end of the month, some places will still require face coverings until further notice, including schools, daycare settings, health care settings, long-term care facilities, congregate settings, transportation, and select municipalities and businesses.

“I want to be clear: Many local jurisdictions, businesses and organizations have their own mask requirements and other mitigations that must be respected,” Pritzker said. “Whether you’re a business, a township, a venue, a place of worship or a city, protecting your patrons and visitors is no doubt a high priority. Masks continue to be a very effective way to keep your establishment from experiencing an outbreak or spreading the disease.”

Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has refused to name a date for lifting the city’s mask and vaccine requirements, despite Pritzker’s promise to lift the statewide mask mandate by the end of the month.

According to the Chicago Department of Public Health, the decision on when to terminate safety mitigations will come down to four key factors: new COVID cases per day, COVID test positivity rates, hospital bed occupancy and ICU bed occupancy.

“I don’t want to put an artificial date on when [the lifting of Chicago’s mask mandate] is going to happen when we still see some danger signs in the data,” Lightfoot said.

However, after peaking at more than 7,300 COVID hospitalizations at the height of the omicron surge, there are now fewer than 3,000 patients currently COVID-positive in Illinois hospitals.

In the meantime, Pritzker has continued to consult with Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike and state epidemiologists to determine when and how the mandate should be lifted.

“I think we all want to be able to remove masks,” the governor said. “But our job is also to keep everybody healthy and make sure that we’re doing the right thing.”