Mask Mandates No Longer Required for Transit, Airports:  A federal judge in Florida this week voided the national mask mandate covering airlines and other public transportation as exceeding the authority of U.S. health officials in their response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

To align with the ending of the enforcement of the federal mask mandate on public transportation, the Pritzker Administration last night announced the state will revise its Executive Order from February.  As a result, masks will no longer be required on public transit, in public transit hubs, or in airports.  Local municipalities retain the right to establish their own mitigations, including masking requirements on public transportation.

Nearly 73% of eligible Illinoisans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and over 81% have had at least one dose of the vaccine. Vaccines are available regardless of immigration status or background, and can be found at vaccines.gov. The CDC continues to recommend that the immunocompromised, those who cannot be vaccinated, and those in congregate facilities wear masks to protect the vulnerable. The CDC also recommends masks are worn in areas of high transmission.

CDC, IDPH Alters COVID-19 Metrics to Focus on Hospitalizations:  The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) has changed its case positivity tracking metric to focus more on hospitalizations.  As a result, this week the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) also announced that it will be following suit.  Instead, IDPH will now look at the following metrics:

• Updated data on vaccination rates to reflect the full population eligible as eligibility continues to evolve
• The number of people admitted to the hospital with a COVID-19 diagnosis
• More detailed data on hospitalizations, including information about vaccination status in those who are hospitalized

This also means that labs will no longer be required to report negative rapid antigen test results, though they will still need to show negative PCR and nucleic acid amplification test results.  The state will continue tracking whether it is in a low, medium or high risk of transmission, based on guidelines set forth by the CDC, which include: 

• Total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days
• New COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 population in the past 7 days
• The percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients

Update on Vaccinations:  A total of 21,719,853 vaccines have been administered to Illinois residents. The average number of vaccines administered daily is 18,128.  According to the state’s vaccine administration data, here’s how the rest of the state’s population by age groups ranks in terms of vaccinations:

5 years of age and older – 73% fully vaccinated; 81% one dose administered
12 years of age and older – 76% fully vaccinated; 85% one dose administered
18 years of age and older – 77% fully vaccinated; 86% one dose administered
65 years of age and older – 88% fully vaccinated; 95% one dose administered             

The state has also updated its COVID-19 website containing current locations and other pertinent information on one webpage.

Update on COVID-19 Metrics: IDPH is reporting 3,106,642 positive tests of COVID-19 in Illinois since the pandemic began.  In total, 54,055,396 tests have now been conducted in Illinois for the virus.  Unfortunately, IDPH is also reporting a total of 33,546 deaths since the pandemic began.

As mentioned above, the CDC no longer uses case positivity as one of their metrics, but instead will use hospitalizations.  You can also check where these cases are occurring at the State of Illinois COVID-19 website which also contains more information on this outbreak.

For information on other states and countries, John Hopkins University has developed this website which provides invaluable resources at a one-stop location detailing testing and tracing trends, timelines of COVID-19 policies, vaccinations, and interactive maps.

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