I’ve been seeing more people who aren’t wearing masks in public places, so I decided to look at the data collected by Carnegie Mellon University as part of their COVIDcast project.
Before the original mask mandate was lifted on May 17, 2021, the mask-wearing rate hovered around 90% — hitting a high of 97.35% on Feb. 12. After the original mandate was lifted, mask wearing dropped rapidly, hitting a low of 22.52% on July 15.
Even though a new mask mandate wasn’t issued in Illinois until Aug. 30, mask wearing was on the rise. This increase mirrored the increase in the Delta variant.
Mask wearing increased drastically after the new mask mandate took effect on Aug. 30, increasing more than 20% in less than a week. However, mask wearing in McHenry County has never hit the same levels it did before the original mask mandate was lifted. The rate has hovered around 75% — hitting a high of 78.42% on Oct. 5.