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 Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a statewide indoor mask mandate
for all Illinoisans effective Aug. 30, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination
status.
And vaccinations are now required for students at state colleges, as well as
school workers from prekindergarten through college, with a first-dose deadline
of Sept. 5. Health care employees in hospitals, nursing homes, urgent care
facilities and physician’s offices also must get a shot by that deadline.
Those failing or unable to get vaccinated must be tested once a week, Pritzker
ordered.
“To be clear, what I am announcing today is a floor — at a minimum, those who
work in schools and health care settings should be vaccinated or tested, keeping
our kids and our most vulnerable safe,” Pritzker said during a news conference
Aug. 26. “For state workers and congregate facilities, we have put in place more
stringent requirements to protect our most vulnerable.”
 Just days earlier, Pritzker had said he had no plans to expand a state employee
vaccine mandate for those working in congregate settings, such as nursing homes,
prisons, group homes and veterans homes.
The governor argued his statewide mask mandate is necessary following a spike in
coronavirus cases in downstate counties where vaccination rates remain low while
hospitals and front-line medical workers near capacity limits.
“The ones who currently are getting hardest hit are in southern and east-central
Illinois. Fewer than half of residents are fully vaccinated, compared with over
70% in suburban Cook County,” Pritzker said. “Today, our seven-day rolling
average for ICU bed availability in southern Illinois is 3%. During the spring
surge, the lowest ICU bed availability anywhere in the state never dropped below
15%.”
Pritzker says the increase in hospitalizations has been driven by a surge of
COVID-19 cases among the unvaccinated and cases breaking through vaccinated
people’s viral barrier. His ability to deny state and school workers a choice
about the vaccines was emboldened by full FDA approval Aug. 23 of the Pfizer-BioNTech
vaccine for those 16 and up.
The Johnson & Johnson and Moderna vaccines are only cleared for emergency use,
although they have been in widespread use.
“Remember, these vaccines are doing what they’re designed to do – essentially to
eliminate the risk of hospitalization and death,” Pritzker said. “In the
meantime, Illinois will join several other states that have reinstituted
statewide indoor mask requirements, regardless of vaccination status, effective
on [Aug. 30].”
Pritzker recently issued his 20th disaster declaration, giving him emergency
powers which enables him to issue statewide mandates on his own.
 Pritzker first declared a statewide disaster when COVID-19 hit in mid-March
2020, invoking the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act. A section of the
act provides that in the case of a disaster, the governor can issue a
proclamation declaring the disaster and grant himself 30 days of emergency
powers over state institutions, operations and public health.
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Pritzker has invoked his emergency powers to sign
80 executive orders into law during the past 17 months. These
executive orders include issuing statewide stay-at-home orders,
limiting the size of public gatherings, suspending the enforcement
of laws and agency operations and closing schools and businesses
deemed non-essential. He most recently used them to
mandate masks in both private and public schools, regardless of
whether students and staff are vaccinated. One private school that
tried to go mask optional was quickly reprimanded and threatened by
the state. A school board member had his medical license threatened
over his opposition.
Pritzker initially said he was allowing elected local school leaders
determine mask policy, but a few weeks later he flip-flopped on the
issue because he said too few were making what he considered to be
the correct decision.
“Far too few school districts have chosen to follow the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prescription for keeping
students and staff safe,” Pritzker said Aug. 4. “Given the CDC’s
strong recommendation, I had hoped that a state mask requirement in
schools wouldn’t be necessary, but it is.”
The CDC “recommends” masks in schools.
While Illinois’ emergency management act states emergency powers are
limited to 30 days, Pritzker has claimed he can extend his emergency
power indefinitely. He simply needs to issue new disaster
proclamations as they expire, which he did again Aug. 20.
Without explicit rules on if Pritzker can extend his emergency
powers on his own authority, the task falls to the Illinois General
Assembly to clarify with new legislation. A majority of state
lawmakers have declined to do so.
Recently, Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and other
lawmakers asked Pritzker to call the legislature in for a special
session to share elected leaders’ input on the COVID-19 mitigation
strategies. Pritzker was asked about a special session during the
Aug. 26 press conference announcing his new mandates. He said he is
always open to input on how to bring down the spread of COVID, but
declined to call a special session.
Most states have not allowed emergency powers to last indefinitely.
Emergency executive powers are meant to allow the governor to
quickly address a disaster in a way that a deliberative body such as
the General Assembly cannot. But when the disaster is nearly a year
and one-half old, there is little reason for rules to be dictated
rather than debated and implemented by elected representatives.
Since declaring a second disaster proclamation and shutting down
non-essential businesses by executive order, Pritzker has become the
target of 19 lawsuits alleging he overstepped his authority. |
