Chicago City Wire

Critics of Chicago's latest mask mandate are warning Mayor Lori Lightfoot not to expect it to have the same impact as previous orders.

“Super excited for Chicago to again try and enforce at small business expense a COVID mandate very, very few collar suburbs or any house party anywhere will,” ChicagoBars posted on its Twitter page.

The new indoor mask order set to go into effect on Aug. 20 will require everyone over the age of 2 to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status. The mandate comes as new cases across the city have spiked to more than 400 a day, leaving the city squarely in the Centers for Disease Control’s high-risk category for community transmission. It applies at bars and restaurants; gyms; common areas of condos and multi-residential buildings and private clubs.

Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady told Crain’s Chicago Business the mandate will remain in place as long as daily cases remain above 400. Arwady said she doesn’t foresee the mandate growing to the point of threatening in-person instruction.

"It's more likely you'd see a classroom, for example, needing to quarantine, or at least the unvaccinated students in that classroom," she said. "We're not at all thinking about moving away from that right now."

While Illinois Retail Merchants Association CEO Rob Karr said the group supports the latest masking requirements, he said he’s convinced the approach once more is all wrong.

"Like previous mandates, this once again misses the mark by failing to place the responsibility on individuals who refuse to comply, especially after employees were threatened or attacked for simply trying to uphold public health orders," he said in a statement. "We call on the city to place responsibility for abiding by this mandate on individuals, not businesses."

Democratic lawmakers continue to largely support the governor’s handling of the pandemic, with Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) recently posting to Facebook “I applaud the governor for continuing to follow the science to protect the people of Illinois.”

In addition to the city’s order, the governor recently imposed a statewide school masking mandate that requires all public and private school students to mask up at all times.