Vaccination

• COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective, and widely available across Illinois. Eligible Chicagoans ages 5 years and older should be vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible to protect themselves against severe outcomes – like hospitalization or death.  

• Individuals 16 years of age and over are recommended to get a booster shot if it has been five months after completing the Pfizer or Moderna two-dose vaccine series or two months after getting the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.  

• Regardless of vaccination status, if you have symptoms of COVID-19, get tested and avoid public spaces except to get medical care.  

Masks 

• Effective February 28, 2022, the City of Chicago has removed the mask and vaccine requirements for certain public spaces.  

• Masks will continue to be required in:

  • Health Care Settings

  • Public transit, including airplanes, trains, buses, taxis, ride-hail, and maritime transportation

  • O’Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport

  • Other congregate settings (such as nursing homes, shelters, and prisons

• Chicago’s Travel Advisory is updated weekly on Tuesdays.

• Under the advisory, unvaccinated travelers should be tested for COVID-19 before and after travel from any state on the advisory list and should quarantine upon arrival in Chicago.

• For domestic travel, the quarantine and testing recommendations do not apply to fully vaccinated travelers.  

• Given the delay for approval of vaccination for children under 5, at this time we are exempting children under 5 years old from the City’s Travel Advisory, as long as the adults they are traveling with are vaccinated.  

• For international travel, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) requires that all travelers, regardless of vaccination status or citizenship, get a negative COVID-19 viral test no more than one day before travel into the United States. CDPH guidelines follow CDC requirements for international travel. The CDC recommends that anyone who is unvaccinated delay travel until they are fully vaccinated. 

• Masks are required by federal law on airplanes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation traveling into, within, or out of the United States and in U.S. transportation hubs such as airports and stations.