JB Pritzker to order indoor mask warrant for the state, vaccine for K-12 and higher education staff

Governor JB Pritzker plans to announce a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all K-12 and higher education employees on Thursday, as well as a world-wide indoor mask mandate. ‘Condition for every 2 years and up, sources familiar with the announcement told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The announcement, which is scheduled for Thursday morning, would come just two days after the Democratic governor dodged questions about extending his limited coronavirus vaccine tenure to all state officials.

New vaccine mandates and a return to masking are hot topics as COVID-19 cases rise in Illinois, fueled largely by the more contagious Delta variant. All of the state’s 102 counties now fall under the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s high transmission category, giving the state’s public health map a disturbing coat of red.

Illinois Department of Public Health

On Tuesday, Pritzker warned of “significantly greater mitigations” and a return to earlier precautionary phases if the rising number of COVID-19 patients overwhelms hospitals and intensive care units, but said he and others “were systematically looking at the menu of options that we may need to push in to bring the numbers down.”

“I will remind you that if we are not able to reduce these numbers, if hospitals continue to fill up, if hospital beds and intensive care units are full like they are in Kentucky – that’s right.” next to Illinois – if that happens, we’re ‘going to have to impose much bigger mitigation measures,’ Pritzker said at an independent press conference on Tuesday.

Illinois recorded 4,451 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, approaching the 4,904 daily cases reported on Friday, which was the state’s highest in seven months.

Chicago public schools already require their employees to get vaccinated, unless they have a valid medical or religious reason. Mayor Lori Lightfoot extended that mandate to all city employees on Wednesday.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

Vaccine mandates – as well as mask requirements – have been a hotly contested issue in school districts statewide.

Even before this announcement, tensions developed between state officials and some suburban and lower state schools where educators and parents argued for greater autonomy in decision-making in matters of education. security.

Earlier this week, the state put several districts on probation for initially refusing to follow the governor’s mask mandate for schools, and they went so far as to revoke recognition of a suburban private school.

Pat Nabong / Sun-Times file

Pritzker announced a limited vaccine tenure for some state officials earlier this month. It applies to “all state employees at assembly facilities,” including veterans homes and prisons. These workers have until October 4 to get vaccinated. A federal mandate requires all staff to be vaccinated in nursing homes that receive Medicaid funding, which is “just about” all homes in Illinois, a spokeswoman for Pritzker said.