Executive Order 2022-20

WHEREAS, protecting the health and safety of Illinoisans is among the most important functions of State government; and,

WHEREAS, since early March 2020, Illinois has faced a pandemic that has caused extraordinary sickness and loss of life, infecting over 3,733,000, and taking the lives of more than 34,800 residents; and,

WHEREAS, as Illinois continues to respond to the public health disaster caused by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel severe acute respiratory illness that spreads rapidly through respiratory transmissions, the burden on residents, healthcare providers, first responders, and governments throughout the State has been unprecedented; and,

WHEREAS, numerous variants have emerged over the course of the pandemic and continue to emerge, each with different transmissibility and degrees of severity; and,

WHEREAS, predicting what will happen in the future in this pandemic continues to be a difficult task, and proven pandemic mitigations such as social distancing, face coverings and other public health precautions continue to work to slow and stop the spread of COVID-19; and,

WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued revised guidance on February 25, 2022 to lift its recommendation for universal indoor masking, including in K-12 settings; and,

WHEREAS, that guidance provided a framework for assessing community COVID-19 levels based on COVID-19 hospital admissions, inpatient bed availability, and number of COVID-19 cases; and,

WHEREAS, the CDC’s current guidance recommends universal masking only in communities with high community COVID-19 levels; and,

WHEREAS, the CDC continues to advise that some community settings, such as schools and high-risk congregate settings may require additional layers of prevention based on the characteristics of the setting and in the event of an outbreak; and,

WHEREAS, even without a State mandate, K-12 schools, childcare facilities, and other settings may choose to require individuals to wear face masks based on the community COVID-19 level and other characteristics of the setting; and,

WHEREAS, COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19 disease, especially severe illness and death, but a proportion of the population remains unvaccinated and some residents, including children under six months of age, are not yet eligible for vaccination; and,

WHEREAS, some employers have entered collective bargaining agreements that continue to require individuals to wear face masks in certain settings, in addition to other mitigation measures; and,

WHEREAS, the CDC continues to recommend that individuals who are immunocompromised or at high risk for severe disease consider wearing a well-fitting mask indoors in public settings when the community COVID-19 level is high; and,

WHEREAS, the CDC continues to recommend that people with symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 wear a mask; and,

WHEREAS, individuals may choose to wear a mask at any time to protect themselves or those around them from spread of COVID-19; and,

WHEREAS, CDC guidance continues to recommend that individuals who are not up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations or within 90 days of COVID-19 infection wear a mask for 10 days following exposure to COVID-19; and,

WHEREAS, CDC guidance continues to recommend that individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 stay at home and isolate for at least 5 days after testing positive and wear a mask until day 10; and,

WHEREAS, the CDC continues to recommend that students, teachers, and staff should stay home when they have signs of any infectious illness, including COVID-19; and,

WHEREAS, schools should continue to collaborate with their local health departments to determine, consistent with CDC guidance, which students, teachers, and staff with positive COVID-19 results should stay home for the health and safety of the school community; and,

WHEREAS, the CDC revised its Operational Guidance for K-12 Schools and Early Care and Education Programs to Support Safe In-Person Learning on August 11, 2022 to apply updated isolation and quarantine recommendations in school and day care settings; and,

WHEREAS, the revised guidance no longer recommends routine screening testing in K-12 schools, except in limited circumstances; and,

WHEREAS, the revised guidance also provides that Test to Stay programs are no longer needed since quarantine is no longer recommended for people who are exposed to COVID-19 except in certain high-risk congregate settings; and,

WHEREAS, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to require staff at federally-certified healthcare providers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and strongly recommends staff at federally-certified Long-Term Care and Skilled Nursing Facilities be up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations; and,

WHEREAS, CMS requires that staff at Long-Term Care and Skilled Nursing facilities who are not up-to-date on their vaccinations be tested at least once per week if the level of COVID-19 community transmission is moderate, and at least twice per week if the level of COVID-19 community transmission is substantial or high; weekly testing is not required if the level of COVID-19 community transmission is low; and,

WHEREAS, in addition to causing the tragic loss of more than 34,800 Illinoisans and negatively impacting the physical health of tens of thousands more, COVID-19 has caused extensive economic loss and continues to threaten the financial welfare of a significant number of individuals and businesses across the nation and the State; and,

WHEREAS, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a nationwide shortage of healthcare professionals that is impacting the delivery of healthcare services in Illinois including the availability of staff, beds, and healthcare services in health care facilities, including State-operated facilities; and,

WHEREAS, many executive agencies in the State continue to focus their limited resources on the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and,

WHEREAS, on September 16, 2022, considering the expected continuing spread of COVID-19 and the ongoing health and economic impacts that will be felt over the coming month by people across the State, I declared all counties in the State of Illinois as a disaster area; and,

WHEREAS, in response to the epidemic emergency and public health emergency described above, I find it necessary to re-issue Executive Orders 2020-09, 2020-20, 2020-23, 2021-12, 2021-18, 2021-22, 2021-31, and 2022-06, and hereby incorporate the WHEREAS clauses of those Executive Orders;

THEREFORE, by the powers vested in me as the Governor of the State of Illinois, pursuant to the Illinois Constitution and Sections 7(1), 7(2), 7(3), 7(8), 7(9), and 7(12) of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act, 20 ILCS 3305, and consistent with the powers in public health laws, I hereby order the following, effective September 16, 2022:

Part 1: Re-Issue of Executive Orders.

Executive Orders 2020-09, 2020-20, 2020-23, 2021-12, 2021-18, 2021-22, 2021-31, and 2022-06 are hereby re-issued as follows:

Executive Order 2020-09 (Telehealth):

Section 9 and 10 of Executive Order 2020-09, as amended by Executive Order 2021-15, is re-issued and extended through October 15, 2022.

Executive Order 2020-20 (Public assistance requirements):

Executive Order 2020-20 is re-issued in its entirety and extended through October 15, 2022.

Executive Order 2020-23 (Actions by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation for licensed professionals engaged in disaster response):

Executive Order 2020-23 is re-issued in its entirety and extended through October 15, 2022.

Executive Order 2021-12 (Phase 5 reopening):

Executive Order 2021-12, as amended by Executive Order 2022-12, is re-issued in its entirety and extended through October 15, 2022.

Executive Order 2021-18 (Mitigation measures):

Executive Order 2021-18, as amended by Executive Order 2021-19, Executive Order 2022-06, and Executive Order 2022-10, is re-issued in its entirety and extended through October 15, 2022.

Executive Order 2021-22 (Vaccination and testing requirements):

Sections 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of Executive Order 2021-22, as amended by Executive Order 2021-23, Executive Order 2021-27, Executive Order 2022-05, and Executive Order 2022-16, are re-issued and extended through October 15, 2022.   

Executive Order 2021-31 (Suspending requirements for professional counselors, clinical professional counselors, social workers and clinical social workers, and clinical psychologists):

Executive Order 2021-31 is re-issued in its entirety and extended through October 15, 2022.

Executive Order 2022-06 (Face covering requirements):

Executive Order 2022-06, as amended by Executive Order 2022-11, is re-issued in its entirety and extended through October 15, 2022.

Part 2: Savings Clause. If any provision of this Executive Order or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid by any court of competent jurisdiction, this invalidity does not affect any other provision or application of this Executive Order, which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application. To achieve this purpose, the provisions of this Executive Order are declared to be severable.

                                                                                                JB Pritzker, Governor

Issued by the Governor September 16, 2022

Filed by the Secretary of State September 16, 2022