Masks Still Recommended in Cook County K-12 Schools Following Court Ruling Even though an Illinois appellate court ruling dismissed Gov. but stopped short of re-instituting a statewide mask mandate . The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its masking guidance Friday to show 70% of the nation's counties at low or medium risk for COVID. Mask mandate to remain in effect in Circuit Court of Cook County facilities Sign up for our morning newsletter to get all of our stories delivered to your mailbox each weekday. In Cook County, masks will still be required in schools for staff members and students not named in a current lawsuit regarding the state's COVID mitigations in schools. For all of 2022, even when courthouses and virtually all other non-healthcare settings throughout the rest of Illinois dropped their mask mandates, Cook County courthouses have continued to require everyone entering to wear a mask, unless specifically directed otherwise by a judge.
Therefore, until local transmission rates reach safer levels, the court will continue its policy of requiring masks or other face coverings in the courthouses at all times other people are present, unless a person is otherwise instructed by the judge or court personnel. The number of people who have died from COVID-19 has never been lower, according to data from the Chicago Department of Public Health. Federal health officials consider the risk of contracting COVID-19 high in a county where the hospitals and health system were beginning to be strained by the number of those ill with the virus, according to guidelines that have been in place since Feb. 28. Get Prepared. The metrics are based on a combination of new cases and hospitalizations, but the medium category is automatically reached if weekly cases surpass 200 positive tests per 100,000 residents. Anyone can get COVID-19 even you. Cook Countys courts continue to stand alone in the region in requiring everyone who enters courthouses to wear masks, and has done so since early 2022.