Rather than risk yet another confrontation with the Chicago Teachers Union, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez are prepared, for now, to follow the agreement they struck with CTU to end a dispute that canceled classes for five days last month.
Chicago officials are expected to announce Tuesday that the city will lift its mask and proof-of-vaccine mandates on Feb. 28, but Chicago Public School students, teachers and employees must keep their masks on — at least for the time being.
Rather than risk yet another confrontation with the Chicago Teachers Union, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her hand-picked CPS CEO Pedro Martinez are prepared, for now, to abide by the agreement they struck with CTU that ended a dispute that canceled classes for five days last month.
The mayor and Chicago Public Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady are scheduled to hold a news conference at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Martinez initially had been scheduled to appear with them, but an updated schedule for the mayor issued at 1 p.m. no longer included the schools CEO.
At least one lawsuit has been filed — by CPS parents in Mount Greenwood — that could end up lifting the mask mandate in Chicago. Mandates already have been lifted in more than 150 school districts elsewhere around the state.
No matter what happens in CPS, starting on Monday, patrons of restaurants, bars and gyms will soon be free to take their masks off and keep their vaccine cards in their wallets.
Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia welcomed the mayor’s on-again-off-again decision to lift the mask and proof-of-vaccine mandates, keeping to the same statewide date set by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“We’re going back to a sense of normalcy. That’s what the general public wants to see. And if operators still want to impose mask mandates at their individual restaurants, they can. I think there might be a few,” he said.
Since Jan. 3, Chicago has required restaurant, bar and gym patrons to show proof of vaccination and a photo ID.
The requirement forced restaurants and bars already struggling with a shortage of staff to reassign some workers to check vaccination cards and IDs — or ask beleaguered wait staff to do it.
Either way, it’s been a burden that has, occasionally resulted in confrontations between employees and customers, Toia said.
“It has been difficult. When you get a party of five or six that comes in, three or four might have the vaccine and a couple don’t. Then, a party of five leaves because all five of ’em do not have the vaccine. That’s tough. It’s been a tough January and February for restaurant operators,” he said.
Last week, Lightfoot said she was not prepared to “put an artificial date” on lifting Chicago’s mask and proof of vaccine mandates — even though the city was making “tremendous progress” in “climbing down the back slope” of the Omicron surge.
That cautionary flag appeared to jeopardize the city’s plan to match Pritzker in lifting is indoor mask mandate for most public settings by Feb. 28 — even though Arwady hedged a bit the following day.
But that was before the bottom dropped out of the Omicron surge.
As of Tuesday, Chicago’s average daily case rate was 283 — down 37% from the 452 cases-a-day just one week ago. Hospitalizations were down 29% — to a daily average of 27. Deaths were down 51 % over the last week—from 9.7 last week to 4.7.
The city’s positivity rate was 1.5%. That’s down from 2% a week ago.
Even by the mayor’s own high standards for lifting mitigations, Chicago now passes the test for liberation with flying colors.