Update: How Many People Still Wear Masks in McHenry County?
A new analysis now that the mask mandate is going away.
On Feb. 9, Governor Pritzker announced that the Illinois mask mandate would be ending. A few months ago, I looked at how many people still reported wearing masks using data collected by Carnegie Mellon University as part of their COVIDcast project.
Given the news, I decided it was time for an update.
The mask wearing rate has ranged from a high of 97.35% on Feb. 12, 2021 and a low of 22.52% on July 15, 2021.
On Dec. 1, 2021, 60.74% of McHenry County residents reported wearing a mask, but that increased likely due to concerns about Omicron. Mask wearing has dipped slightly since hitting a recent high of 88.79% on Jan. 12, 2022.
I’ll likely do another update a few months from now to see how the removal of the mask mandate impacts mask wearing in the county. It is worth noting that Illinois still recommends wearing masks, it’s just no longer requiring it.