Chicago and suburban Cook County moved into a high-transmission level of COVID-19 on Thursday, the Chicago Department of Public Health announced. City health officials are “now strongly urging everyone to wear masks in indoor public settings and advising against non-essential indoor gatherings” for people who are at severe risk, but the city will not reinstate a mask mandate because “few people with COVID-19 are hospitalized in Chicago and the city’s health care system capacity is not threatened,” according to the health department.  

The Chicago Department of Public Health issued an advisory to warn that cases of the monkeypox virus “have recently been identified in Europe and the US.” and that “some, but not all, cases have been identified among gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men.” While there are no known cases in Illinois, the department is urging people to “avoid close contact” with people who show symptoms, including “rash or unusual sores on face, body, and genitals, fever, chills, head or muscle aches, or swelling of lymph nodes.”