Starting Aug. 30, Illinois REALTORS® will be required to wear a mask when conducting business indoors, regardless of their vaccination status, according to today’s announcement by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

In fact, Pritzker announced a statewide indoor mask mandate for anyone two years old and older because of the dramatic increase of delta variant COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in Illinois.

Pritzker said he and IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike are also requiring vaccinations for healthcare workers, including nursing home employees, all pre-K-12 teachers and staff, as well as higher education personnel and students. Employees in these settings who are unable or unwilling to get the shot will have to be tested for COVID-19 at least once a week, as required by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Illinois State Board of Education (IDBE).

Ezike said the number of individual patients admitted to Illinois hospitals in one day reached its highest number since May: 220. As of Wednesday evening, she said 2,184 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in Illinois, with 489 in intensive care units (ICU) and 241 on ventilators. In Region 5, which includes 20 counties in southern Illinois, only one ICU bed was available. She estimated that by next week, hospitals in four regions of the state might face the same crisis of space/staffing.

The majority of positive test results, hospitalizations and deaths are the unvaccinated, said Pritzker. He urged Illinoisans who have not yet been vaccinated to take action since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first COVID-19 vaccine.