Evanston To Lift Mask Mandate, Proof Of Vaccine Requirement At Same Time As City, State

EVANSTON, IL — Starting Monday, masks will no longer be required in indoor public spaces and businesses will no longer have to limit access to people with proof of vaccination, the mayor announced.

Mayor Daniel Biss' said the Evanston Health and Human Services Department will allow for the suburb's mask and proof-of-vaccine mandates to expire at the end of the month — the same time as the Cook County and Chicago departments of public health have announced their mandates are ending.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has previously announced the statewide mask mandate will also end Feb. 28.

"Along with the rest of Illinois, Evanston will enter the next phase of the pandemic on February 28, when the City’s Health & Human Services Department will lift its vaccination and indoor masking mandates consistent with Governor Pritzker’s timeline," Biss said Wednesday in a message to the community.

The mayor said he appreciated the passion and input from community members who have strong preferences about COVID-19 policies and respected the broad range of views among residents.

"I’ve heard from business owners who see the mandates as crushing their livelihood…and business owners who only feel safe showing up to work because of those mandates. I’ve heard from residents who are spending their money out of town because of our mandates…and residents who will stop patronizing Evanston businesses if the mandates are lifted," he said. "I’ve heard from parents who see school mask mandates as impairing the mental health and normalcy of their children’s daily lives…and parents whose kids would be terribly anxious to sit and learn in close quarters with a bunch of unmasked classmates (my own children are in this latter category, incidentally)."

Biss said city officials were engaged in a balancing act that involves maintaining less-disruptive policies that have a high impact — such as the city's vaccine mandate for employees, elected officials and appointed board members — while rolling back more intrusive mandates such as the requirement that owners of some private businesses are required to refuse service to unvaccinated people.

"Today’s announcement isn’t a declaration of victory over COVID-19," he said, "on the contrary, it’s an acknowledgement that total victory is still quite distant, and therefore that we have to assess our policies based on the expectation that they will be kept in place for a long time."

The mayor said the city's health department continues to recommend masks in schools, especially in crowded settings without physical distancing.

"Via an executive order, Governor Pritzker and the State of Illinois continue to require masks in all public and private Pre-K-12 schools in the state," Biss said. "However, in the wake of a lawsuit filed by a number of schools in Illinois, many local school districts have chosen to act independently of this order and have implemented a mask-optional policy for students, teachers, staff and visitors."

Meanwhile, local school districts have provided different interpretations of their legal authority to continue requiring that students and teachers wear masks following this month's decision from a Sangamon County judge to void certain COVID-19 emergency rules and block enforcement of some of Pritzker's executive orders, a legislative panel's decision not to impose new rules and an appellate panel's ruling last week dismissing the governor's appeal of the judge's ruling.

Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Superintendent Devon Horton said Wednesday in a message to family that his administration planned to share an update to its mask policy next week.

"[Administrators are] currently in consultation with the local health departments, medical advisors, and also our union leaders to discuss current and future masking guidance for students, staff, and visitors in our schools," Horton said. "At this time, masks continue to be required indoors."

Notably, outdoor masking was required in District 65 until earlier the month. Horton announced the end of the district's outdoor mask mandate based on a decline in local COVID-19 cases and "also the science that the risk of transmission outdoors is extremely low."

But Evanston Township High School Superintendent Eric Witherspoon offered a different interpretation of the district's authority.

"[A]t the moment, there's no state rule to enforce. So enforcement has been more or less ripped away from us at the moment, and clearly we don't want to put anybody in a position of being forced to interpret state law and state rules themselves," Witherspoon staff of the high school Tuesday.

"We're trying to be honest with people that we really don't have a way to enforce a mask mandate," he said. "But we want masks to remain in place here at ETHS for students and staff for the foreseeable future while this gets sorted out."

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Tuesday filed motions with the Illinois Supreme Court requesting that it stay the lower courts ruling and expedite its consideration of the Pritzker administration's appeal. The state's highest court has not indicated whether it intends to hear the case.