Dozens of Chicago businesses cited for mask mandate violations

Dozens of Chicago businesses have been cited for mask mandate violations after the city reinstated its indoor face-covering requirement last month.

The city’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) department issued 10 citations for businesses that failed to abide by the mask requirements from Thursday to Sunday, according to the Chicago Tribune. One business was just issued a warning.

Overall, the department reportedly conducted 110 investigations in that time frame.

Between Aug. 20 and 29, a total of 20 citations were given and 16 warnings were issued, according to the Tribune. Some of the establishments were nightclubs, grocery stores and restaurants.

The city of Chicago restored its indoor mask mandate last month, following a spike in COVID-19 cases driven largely by the highly infectious delta variant, which is now the dominant strain in the U.S. and causing a surge nationwide.

The order, which went into effect on Aug. 20, requires that all people ages 2 years and older wear a mask indoors, regardless of their vaccination status.

The mandate applies to all indoor public spaces, including common spaces in condos and apartments, private clubs, gyms, bars and restaurants. It does not, however, apply when people are eating or drinking inside establishments or taking part in other activities like spa facials.

When the mask mandate was rolled out, BACP said it would initially work to educate people before penalizing them for infractions but did say “egregious” violations could result in a citation, the Tribune reported.

In the first weekend that the mask mandate was in place, eight businesses were reportedly given warnings after breaking the regulations. The next weekend, five businesses received citations.

Chicago Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady has said the mask requirement would be nixed once the number of daily cases falls before 400 for at least a week. Additional restrictions, however, could be implemented if infections continue to increase.

The number of average new cases fell below 400 on Tuesday, according to the Tribune, marking the first time the figure was less than 400 since Aug. 7.

The Hill reached out to BACP for more information.