Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced on Wednesday, Feb. 9, that COVID-19 infection and hospitalization numbers are falling rapidly enough that the indoor mask mandate will probably be lifted on Feb. 28, if the trend continues.
The mask mandate for K-12 schools, however, will remain in effect for a few weeks after that.
The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, fueled the pandemic's worst surge at the beginning of the year. As other places have seen, Omicron infections retreated as precipitously as they rose.
Pritzker cited hospital capacity improvements as the key . . .
