Which suburban hospitals are sticking with masks to keep COVID-19 at bay

It's not universal, but a number of health care systems and their affiliated hospitals in the suburbs will continue to require face masks.

On Monday, the state relaxed COVID-19 masking rules at health care facilities such as hospitals and medical offices, in the wake of revised U.S. Centers for Disease Control guidelines. But health care systems are allowed to choose whether to keep face coverings in place.

So far, Advocate Aurora Health, Ascension Health, Cook County Health, Duly Health and Care, NorthShore-Edward-Elmhurst Health and Northwestern Medicine are continuing to require masks.

“It's really about patient safety, and we feel that it's very important to make the hospital a safe place for patients and go toward the goal for zero harm,” Edward Hospital's Jonathan Pinsky said.

“As long as we're seeing COVID cases, we really need masks to prevent any risk of transmission to patients,” added Pinsky, medical director of infection control and prevention.

He gave the example of Edward employees who contract viruses that include COVID-19 and whose symptoms may take a day or two to manifest.

“We're just fortunate that we have masks in place to prevent any transmissions to patients. I really would be very fearful of losing those masks — that would be very dangerous to patient safety,” Pinsky said.

Duly's decision was made “for the continued protection of its patients, staff, and in support of OSHA and CDC guidelines — consistent with the other health care entities,” Chief Medical Officer Don Hoscheit said.

“We anticipate continuing this practice through the upcoming flu season during any rise in COVID, and will reassess after the holidays.”

At Ascension Illinois, which includes hospitals in Elk Grove and Aurora, “we continue to monitor COVID-19 transmission rates for the communities we serve, as recommended by the CDC,” Vice President of Patient Safety and Quality Mary Ann Palermo said. “For the safety of our vulnerable patients and associates, we continue to require masking of all patients, visitors and staff within our patient care settings.”

Meanwhile, the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases rose by about 15% in a week. Friday's average was 1,708 new cases, in contrast with 1,488 on Oct. 14, Illinois Department of Public Health data showed.

Hospitalizations for the virus reached a seven-day average of nearly 964 patients Thursday, compared to last week's tally of about 955 people on Oct. 13.

The number of Illinoisans getting the latest bivalent COVID-19 booster shot topped 1.1 million. The new shot that protects against two highly contagious COVID-19 variants was introduced Sept. 1.

Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties remained at a low COVID-19 transmission level, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said.

Twenty-six counties in the state are at elevated transmission levels versus last week's tally of 16. Of those, Knox, Saline and Warren counties registered as high.

The state's total COVID-19 cases reached 3,796,038 with 35,168 deaths, the IDPH reported.