Masks can come off Monday in most places in Illinois

CHICAGO — Just shy of the second anniversary of his proclamation declaring the coronavirus a statewide disaster, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will try again to turn the page on COVID-19 restrictions Monday when he lifts his much-contested mask mandate for most indoor public places.

Masks still will be mandatory on public transportation and in places such as hospitals and day care centers, and businesses still can require them as they see fit.

But the end of mandatory masking in most settings represents a big step in getting back to normal, even though it comes as the highly unpredictable virus remains in wide circulation.

The current landscape somewhat resembles the optimistic weeks before last summer’s pandemic lull, with cases, hospitalizations and deaths all declining. In some ways, it offers even more hope, with more people vaccinated and boosted and a higher level of natural immunity among those infected in recent surges.

At the same time, there remain plenty of causes for concern: The youngest children still aren’t able to get vaccinated, an even more contagious subvariant of the virus is circulating in Illinois, and overstretched hospitals are caring for far more COVID-19 patients than they were when Pritzker briefly lifted the mask rule in June.

In lifting the mask mandate, Pritzker pointed to plummeting hospitalizations but declined to specify the target that triggered the change.still recommending masking, the governor’s office ditched the detailed, data-driven rubrics for easing restrictions that were a hallmark of Pritzker’s earlier approach.