Several States Drop Mask, Proof of Vaccination Mandates Except to a Lone Place; Here's Why!

Officials in Chicago said Tuesday that the city's indoor mask mandate and COVID-19 vaccine requirement for enterprises including gyms, bars, and restaurants will be lifted beginning next week.

The regulations will be repealed on Monday, the same day that Illinois' statewide mask law expires, but masks will still be needed in Chicago's public transportation system, health-care settings, and "congregant settings," such as nursing homes, according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

State School Board Lifts Mask Mandate

According to Lightfoot, who tested positive for the coronavirus last month and suffered moderate symptoms during the spike caused by the Omicron strain, the decision was taken due to dropping daily COVID-19 cases and other critical data in the nation's third-largest metropolis, as per New Yor Post.

As COVID-19 incident and hospitalizations continue to plummet across the country, 49 states have declared plans to repeal their indoor mask regulations. Hawaii remains the lone holdout. From the start of the pandemic, the island state has taken extreme safeguards against the coronavirus, and out-of-state American visitors are still required to get vaccinated.

According to the Hawaii Department of Health, over 75% of Hawaii people have gotten two doses of the COVID-19 vaccination, which is 10% higher than the national average, and coronavirus infections have decreased by 64% from February 5 to February 18. The data from Johns Hopkins University reveals the dramatic decline of COVID-19 cases in Hawaii mirrored national statistics: reported US cases on Saturday barely touched 100,000, a steep reduction from over 800,850 five weeks ago, according to USA Today.

A new survey issued Tuesday by the Siena College Research Institute stated that while New York State officials have begun relaxing key coronavirus pandemic restrictions, not all people are eager to see them go. In the poll, 45% of registered voters felt the state should have remained in place the recently revoked law requiring masks or evidence of complete immunization in indoor public venues. According to the study, 31% believe the mandate should have ended sooner while 20% believe it concluded on time.

When it comes to school masks, 58 percent of respondents agreed with Gov. Kathy Hochul's decision to wait until early March to review virus data before deciding whether or not to extend the state mandate while only 30% thought it should have ended already, and 10% said they wanted it to end after this week's midwinter break.

Health Leaders Aim for COVID-19-Free Place

The survey of 803 registered voters in New York State was conducted from February 14 to February 17, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. Registered voter polls provide a snapshot of political sentiment at a specific point in time, but they are less predictive of electoral outcomes.

The group most likely agree with Gov. Hochul's intention to evaluate March data before moving on the school mask law was those without children at home, with 64 percent indicating they favored waiting and seeing. Those with children at home were more equally divided, with 46% saying Hochul should study the March statistics before acting and 40% saying the mandate should have ended by now, New York times reported.

Other regulations have already expired or are about to expire as COVID-19 instances and hospitalizations have decreased across the country since January's omicron spike.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently told reporters that the agency is considering changing its mask recommendations in the coming weeks. Doctors from the World Health Organization (WHO) have cautioned against removing limitations all at once.

Despite good case and hospitalization data, the number of fatalities has remained persistently high. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the United States recorded 49,965 new cases and 655 new fatalities in the past day, down from over a million new cases and over 4,400 new deaths in January, as per Fox News.