Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Tuesday the city will soon be implementing a new vaccine passport system that will bar the unvaccinated from bars, restaurants, theaters, and other indoor venues.
According to Lightfoot, Chicagoans will have to show proof of vaccination by January 3, and it will “remain in effect until the City deems that the threat of COVID-19 to public health has diminished significantly.”
“We didn’t want it to get to this point, but given the situation we find ourselves in, we have no choice,” Lightfoot tweeted as she shared the new decree from the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Hospitalizations in the city are at their highest since our surge last winter. Deaths are at a higher rate than we have seen in months.
On top of all this, we can expect a post-holiday surge in cases.
— Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) December 21, 2021
Speaking to the unvaccinated, Lightfoot issued a curt warning: “Time is up.”
“To put it simply, if you have been living vaccine-free, your time is up,” she said. “If you wish to live life as w/the ease to do the things you love, you must be vax’d. This health order may pose an inconvenience to the unvaccinated, and in fact it is inconvenient by design.”
To put it simply, if you have been living vaccine-free, your time is up. If you wish to live life as w/the ease to do the things you love, you must be vax'd.
This health order may pose an inconvenience to the unvaccinated, and in fact it is inconvenient by design.
— Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) December 21, 2021
According to the Chicago Department of Public Health, children as young as five will have to show proof of vaccination. CDPH Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady told WGN that the new requirement will create a “much safer indoor environment” even though evidence shows that vaccination status does not stop viral infection.
“This new requirement will not eliminate COVID risk, but it will help ensure a much safer indoor environment for fully vaccinated Chicagoans, as well as for the employees working in these higher-risk settings. As we head further into the winter months, we must take this step now,” Arwady said.
Rob Karr, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, called it a “pretty measured approach,” since the order will allow unvaccinated citizens to enter an establishment for up to ten minutes.
“This is all about taking your mask off or drinking or in a gym situation to work out,” Karr said.
Weekly testing will be available for employees, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Vaccinated individuals will still be required to wear masks. According to WGN, Chicago is “now averaging more than 1,700 new COVID cases in Chicago residents every day, a 79% increase from one week ago.”
Chicago’s new vaccine passport system was announced just one day after Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced that the unvaccinated will be banned from various indoor businesses come 2022.
“Vaccination is the most powerful tool we have to fight this pandemic,” said Wu when announcing her new policy.
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