The city will again encourage people to wear masks indoors if high COVID-19 levels are hit
Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, receives a bivalent COVID-19 booster in November from pharmacist Atenea Gazdziak in Chicago, after encouraging people to get vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19 variants.
The advisory would encourage, but not require, masking indoors, according to the city health department.At the Chicago’s current medium level, the CDC recommends people at high risk of severe illness mask indoors when in public, and that those in contact with high-risk people consider wearing masks around them. At high community levels, the CDC recommends widespread masking.
Chicago is now averaging about 600 new cases of COVID-19 each day, and that only counts people diagnosed in formal settings, not people who get positive results when using at-home tests. That’s up from an average of 425 new cases a day about a month ago, according to the city health department. “Our bodies need to continue to be primed against these new variants,” said Dr. Larry Kociolek, medical director of infection, prevention and control at Lurie. “Vaccines are going to prevent many infections. They’re going to allow us to do the things we love to do, especially this time of year, gatherings with family and friends.”
“We’ve seen more people getting flu and hospitalized with flu at this point in the year than we’ve seen in many years,” Arwady said.
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