BY SANDRA GUY
Mask-wearing isn’t just for Halloween — and in fact, Halloween masks don’t count as COVID-19 masks.
It’s important to continue to wear surgical masks or double-layered cloth masks that fit well to protect yourself and others.
One way to stay safe is to incorporate a COVID-19 safety mask into your costume.
The mask-wearing mandate, though admittedly a grownup thing to have to do, resulted from a Centers for Disease and Prevention mandate, even for those already vaccinated.
The agency advised that people who live in high-transmission communities wear masks in indoor public spaces, even if they’ve been vaccinated. It also recommended that vaccinated people with vulnerable household members, including young children and those who are immunocompromised, wear masks indoors in public spaces.
The agency also called for universal masking for teachers, staff members and students in schools, regardless of their vaccination status.
Illinois offers a striking example of how even a low COVID positivity rate cannot offset a mask mandate.
In March, when the first mask mandate expired, the rate was 2.8%. On Oct. 15, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported the state’s seven-day positivity rate on all tests dropped to 2.5% from 2.6% the prior week. The rolling average seven-day positivity rate for cases as a percentage of total tests also dropped to 2% from 2.1% the prior week.
Governor JB Pritzker has said some health metrics still need to improve before he could ease the state’s mask mandate.
“If you go look at the hospitalizations, new hospitalizations, as well as the ones existing in total, that they are not dropping at the rate they were dropping even a couple of weeks ago. So, I’m concerned about that,” Pritzker said.
In Illinois, about 7.1 million people — or 56.28 percent of the state’s 12.7 million people — have gotten all their COVID-19 vaccine shots, according to state data. City data shows more than 1.57 million Chicagoans — or 58.8 percent of all residents — are fully vaccinated, and 64 percent of all Chicagoans have gotten at least one shot.