Chicago mask mandate to stay in place even as Illinois eases restrictions statewide

Speaking with reporters, Lightfoot said: "February 28 is obviously the date that the state set, that's not the date that the city set," according to Fox 32.

"We're still though at 500 cases a day — not where we want to be. We're still seeing too many people dying every day from COVID. So, I think we're making great progress. Dr. Arwady and I will have more to say on that later this week, but I don't want to put an artificial date on when this is going to happen when we still see some danger signs in the data," she added.

In addition to not giving a timeline on the removal of mask mandates, Lightfoot added that the vaccine mandate for city workers will stay in place for the foreseeable future.

According to NBC 5, the state was averaging more than 32,000 COVID-19 cases per day through the peak of the omicron variant. Less than a month later, that number has plummeted to an average of 5,825 cases per day.

Earlier this month, Pritzker announced that the mask mandate for the state would be lifted by February 28 if COVID-19 metrics for the state continue to decline. Cook County, where Chicago resides, also reportedly plans to lift its mask and vaccination requirements following the governor’s timeline.

Pritzker has stressed that low hospitalization rates would be key in removing the mandate.