Chicago City Wire

Children attending schools administered by the Chicago Archdiocese will be required to wear masks outside at recess.  

“Masks now required during recess” a recent update to the Chicago Archdiocese’s Covid protocol reads.

As of Jan. 8 the measure went into place. It affects the Archdiocese of Chicago's 69,000 students. 

“Due to the more contagious nature of the Omicron variant and the close proximity students typically play, we are now requiring that students wear masks during outdoor recess. This is a temporary measure to help inhibit the spread and reduce overall infections. Masks remain required for all indoor activities, with the exception of lunch/eating,” the Chicago Archdiocese’s notice reads.

Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, who leads the Chicago Archdiocese, was recently photographed maskless at a packed charity event.

Cupich has backed Gov. J.B. Pritzker's "mitigations," such as mandatory indoor masks and mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. He was an early proponent of masks, celebrating Mass in one in April 2020.

The Chicago Archdiocese also previously mandated that all of its employees receive a COVID vaccination.

Prior to the Chicago Public Schools return to in-person learning, the city's Department of Health commissioned a study that found  a lower COVID transmission rate in non-public schools than in general society.

A commentary posted on the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy site written by two University of Illinois at Chicago professors said that "cloth masks and face coverings are likely to have limited impact on lowering COVID-19 transmission, because they have minimal ability to prevent the emission of small particles ... and offer limited personal protection with respect to small particle inhalation.”

"Does that Face Mask Really Protect You," a 2010 research article by Dr. Larry E. Bowen of the Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Ala., detailed fitting various types of masks on a mannequin to study their effectiveness, and found that wearing surgical, bandana and dust masks offer "very little protection" and concluded that "wearing these face masks may produce a false sense of protection.”