East Central Reporter

In a conversation with Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), Rep. Adam Niemerg (R-Teutopolis) sought answers to questions about mask mandates and what the youth of Illinois could expect to happen in the fall when schools reopen.

Given that the Centers for Disease Control recently announced new mask mandates for individuals who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and based on questions he’s heard from his constituents, Niemerg first asked if IDPH would be relaxing the mask mandates for outdoor sports.

“Is the IDPH going to follow suit with the CDC and remove all mask mandates for outside sports? Is that coming?” he asked in a video chat that was posted to the Illinois House GOP Youtube channel on April 27.

Ezike admitted that she hadn’t had time to fully go over the new mandates herself, but that her team is working on it.

“We will look at that. I have to read the fine print to see if they recommended that for all youth sports. We will absolutely support that and follow the CDC’s recommendation,” she said.

Another big concern for Niemerg’s constituents is whether or not students will be required to wear masks in the fall, and they touched on that too in this conversation.

“Following vaccinations, for our kids in the fall, in-person learning with the mask mandates for fall , under what criteria would K-6, K-12, whatever, no longer have the mask mandate in schools?" Niemerg asked.

“We’ll have to see how well we get the people who are eligible to be vaccinated. I’m hoping that (ages) 12-15, that that authorization will go through in the next month, that would mean a larger swath of our population would be eligible. If it’s a good uptake, we might get closer to that herd immunity,” Ezike said. “We’ll have to see what the case rates are and what the data can tell us about what happens in kids and how it spreads.”

The duo touched on herd immunity and why that’s difficult to define with COVID-19, and how people will know when they can drop the mask mandate and other restrictions.  For now, Ezike said that “we keep our masks on unless we’re vaccinated and then we have a reprieve.”