Mayor Craig Johnson of Elk Grove Village announced Wednesday that masks would be made optional in businesses and public property, defying Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s statewide mask mandate.
Johnson said he came to the decision because the number of people admitted to the Amita Health Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village for COVID-19 has remained low compared to the peak of the pandemic last year.
Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson decided to make the mask mandate optional for local businesses, Oct. 28, 2021. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
“People in this community are getting very frustrated and almost desperate for some kind of guidance,” Johnson said. “It’s the right decision, right now, to make masks optional. And you mark my words, there’s going to be a lot more of this going on.”
Elk Grove Village is in Cook and DuPage counties. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cook County is still classified as having a “substantial” COVID-19 community transmission rate and DuPage has a “high” community transmission rate. The CDC recommends that people in both counties wear masks in “public, indoor settings.”
Pritzker reinstated the indoor mask mandate in late August, citing the rapidly rising number of cases and declining number of available ICU beds as the delta variant swept through Illinois. He once again defended the mandate in early October saying he was waiting for a further decline in cases before lifting the mandate.
Johnson, however, believes the number of COVID-19 cases across the state is low enough to warrant removing the mandate. While Johnson says he has “a lot of respect for the governor,” he felt this departure from the rules was necessary.
Bartender Kathy Smith talks to customers at Coach's Corner restaurant on Oct. 28, 2021, in Elk Grove Village. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Over the summer, Elk Grove Village held two major events, including a Beach Boys concert with “thousands of people pretty closely packed,” Johnson said, with no major COVID-19 outbreaks reported at either.
Johnson said he is still a proponent of vaccinations and that 94% of Elk Grove Village employees are vaccinated. He emphasized that this was without the aid of a vaccine mandate.
On Oct. 7, President Joe Biden visited an Elk Grove Village manufacturing site to further emphasize the importance of vaccines in ending the pandemic and to plug vaccine mandates.
Sue Remien, owner of Coach's Corner Pizzeria & Sports Grill, applauds the mayor’s mask optional decision, Oct. 28, 2021. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
One local business owner, Sue Remien of Coach’s Corner Pizzeria & Sports Grill, said her business is one of the most established restaurants in Elk Grove Village at nearly 24 years old, and it barely survived the pandemic.
Remien said she applauds the mayor’s decision to make masks optional inside and says she will be instituting the policy in her restaurant.
“All of our employees are vaccinated, and it’s just operationally difficult for the service to run around and serve with a mask,” Remien said.
Businesses are not required to change their policy to mask optional, Johnson said.
sygoodman@chicagotribune.com
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