The Illinoize

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Pritzker Non-Committal on Mask Mandate

As some states took steps to remove their public face mask mandates, Governor JB Pritzker won’t say if he plans to end his order before it expires in June.

Texas and Mississippi may be removing mask mandates, but Illinois is not following suit.

The Illinoize asked Governor JB Pritzker if he had any plans to end his mask mandate, which has been in effect since last May, before it expires in early June.

“I plan to keep the mask mandate in effect as long as it will be helpful in us keeping people safe across the state of Illinois.”

We followed up asking the Governor if there was a thought to extend it.

“I don’t know. This virus has been so unpredictable,” Pritzker said. “Who knew there would be variants of the virus that we’re now gonna fight? All I know is that the numbers are going in the right direction in the state right now, that we have case positivity in the low 2% range, we have test positivity in the mid-high 2 range. We haven’t seen that ever in the last year. If it keeps going that way, we’ll be able to open up more and more.”

Patrick Pfingsten

@pfingsten1 patrick@theillinoize.com