Darren Kinnard
Section618.com

Back in June, the Illinois Department of Public Health updated its All-Sports Policy that masks would not be required for vaccinated individuals in indoor sports such as volleyball and basketball.

That changed Wednesday.

Included in Governor JB Pritzker’s announcement of a mask mandate for all kids in schools was another update to the IDPH All-Sports Policy. Now everyone, regardless of vaccination status, is required to wear a mask for indoor sports. This includes players, coaches, officials, game personnel, and fans. The mask rule also includes winter or spring sports having open gyms, conditioning, or weightlifting indoors.

Currently there are no schedule or fan capacity limitations, and this new directive is only for indoor sports. Outdoor sports will not be required to mask, regardless of vaccination status.

“Today’s announcement will not deter us from our mission of safely offering high school student-athletes in Illinois the opportunity to participate in sports and activities,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “Illinois high school student-athletes and coaches have been resilient in dealing with myriad mitigations and unexpected changes over the past year. We hope all Illinoisans do their part to stop the spread of COVID-19 so we can quickly move beyond this and remove masks from indoor athletic events.”

When high school sports were finally given the green light by the IDPH to play back in January, players in medium and high risk sports, indoors or outdoors, were required to mask, with the exception of wrestling where masking was considered a safety hazard.