Multiple Illinois health systems have implemented full or partial mask mandates amid a continuing uptick in respiratory infections across the state.

Rush University Medical Center, in a note on its website, said visitors and staff must wear hospital-approved masks in some areas, citing increased levels of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, such as the flu and RSV.

“Effective Dec. 2, 2024, Rush is requiring patients and visitors to wear hospital-approved masks when they are in clinical offices, waiting areas and patient registration,” the hospital stated. “The policy coincides with the respiratory virus season, when the spread of flu, RSV and COVID-19 rises.”

The above requirement is in effect at all of the health system’s hospitals – Rush University Medical Center, Rush Copley Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital. OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, meanwhile, will begin requiring masks on Tuesday due to “widespread respiratory illnesses,” including COVID-19, influenza and RSV. In addition, the hospital is implementing a temporary restriction of only two visitors – 18 years old and above – per patient.

Other area health systems, such as Endeavor Health, require masks for visitors and patients experiencing respiratory symptoms, citing ongoing virus transmission, according to its website. University of Chicago Medicine, meanwhile, mandates staff members members wear masks for “all patient care and patient facing activities,” according to a spokesman.

On a statewide level, the Illinois Department of Public Health warned Dec. 23 that the “overall respiratory illness level has moved up from low to moderate.” The percentage of emergency room visits for respiratory illnesses increased from 13.8% to 14.7% in a one-week period, along with a rise in ICU admissions for RSV, which officials said was largely driven by children between the ages of 0 and 4 years old.

The uptick in Illinois follows surges in flu and whooping cough cases across much of the country.

Dr. Whitney Lyn, a family medicine physician with Cook County Health, said the hospital admission rate typically picks up a week after the holidays, but this year, hospitals are already “bursting at the seams.”

For those who contract an illness, there are effective anti-viral treatments available for COVID-19 and the flu, but they must be started quickly. Even with the nation experiencing a rise in illnesses and the holidays winding down, doctors insist it’s not too late to get vaccinated.

Lyn said it’s “really, really important” to consider getting vaccines to decrease your chances of becoming seriously ill.

“But what’s really the important thing about it is [the] majority of these viruses that we are seeing do have vaccines that can either lessen the symptoms or don’t have the symptoms at all,” she stated. “The more people that we really get vaccinated for the flu, RSV, COVID, those are the things that are really going to decrease the transmission from person to person and not have your whole household sick.”

While it takes about two weeks for vaccinations to provide their full level of protection, getting shots now will offer protection through the cold and flu season that lasts into the spring.

Anyone experiencing common respiratory symptoms – such as a cough, sneezing or a fever – should wear a mask anytime they are around others, doctors assert.

“…If you’re having that cough, that sneezing, please wear a mask because you don’t know what you have,” Lyn said. “And if, you know, you have elderly people that you’re around or people who are immunocompromised that have chronic diseases or even children, those things can actually make things worse for them.”

Peoria has the highest property taxes in the country relative to market value of homes, according to a study of 342 of the largest cities.

SmartAsset ranked cities based on the “median annual real estate taxes paid on owner-occupied homes with a mortgage relative to the median home value of such households.”

Peorians, according to the study, pay 2.64% of the value of their homes in annual property taxes, the highest mark in the country, according to the study based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 1-Year American Community Survey for 2023. The median amount spent in property taxes for owner-occupied homes was $4,455 a year and the median home value in Peoria was $168,900, according to SmartAsset.

Illinois had the top two cities on the list and four of the top eight. Rockford was No. 2. Homeowners there paid 2.46% of their home value in property taxes with a median of $3,452 in property taxes paid, according to the study. The median home value in Rockford was $140,300, according to the study.

The rest of the top five, based on the highest percentage of property taxes paid relative to home values, included: Waterbury, Connecticut (2.39%); Syracuse, New York (2.36%); and Albany, New York (2.34%).

Elgin was seventh with 2.23% of home value paid for real estate taxes, with $6,394 being the median amount for property taxes and $287,300 listed as the median home value. Aurora was eighth with 2.21% of home value paid in property taxes, with a median property tax amount of $6,310 and a median home value of $285,300.

‘Firing on all cylinders’: Illinois city ranked one of the best in the world. Here’s why

Nearly a dozen Illinois teenagers were slapped with felony charges after they allegedly used dating apps to lure and beat two adult men over the summer — reportedly as part of a social media trend, according to police.

Some of the 11 teens involved — all boys aged 16 and 17 — were inspired by a cryptic viral social media trend, the Mount Prospect Police Department said in a statement on Thursday without elaborating on details of the apparent trend.

One of the victims, a 41-year-old man, reported to police that he’d been beaten by “a group of teenagers” in a parking lot on West Northwest Highway in Mount Prospect, Illinois around 9:45 p.m. on July 8.

“The victim related that he had utilized an online dating app to arrange to meet a person at that location. After arriving, the victim related that he was approached by a group of teenage males, who confronted him verbally and battered him. Teenagers in the group also damaged the victim’s vehicle,” police said.

Police did not specify what dating apps the group used to nab their would-be victims.

The teenagers allegedly tailed the 41-year-old when he tried to bolt to his car, but he managed to escape, the local department said.

Cops responded to a report of a similar battery a mere 10 minutes later.

The group’s second victim, a 23-year-old man, told police that he was supposed to meet someone he met on a dating app just a mile away from the location of the first assault when he was ganged up on and beaten by the teens. One of them even slashed one of his car tires, according to the police report.

Even with one tire indisposed, the victim was able to drive away. He couldn’t get very far with the slashed tire and stopped at a nearby residence to call 911, police said.

Investigators used surveillance footage to track down the teenage brutes.

“The Mount Prospect Police Detectives were able to locate video surveillance footage that captured the incident at 606 West Northwest Highway and were able to identify some of the offenders in the video,” police said.

“An extensive investigation was conducted where 11 total juveniles were identified as taking part in one or both incidents.”

Each of the 11 teens was charged with one or two counts of aggravated battery, criminal damage to property and mob action, depending on their involvement in the attacks.

Detectives also said that one of the teens used “a racial and another derogatory term” during one of the alleged incidents, tacking on two hate crime charges for that teen, according to police.

None of the teens were publically named by police because they are all minors. They all turned themselves in last month and were taken to Chicago’s Cook County Juvenile Detention Center.

Mount Prospect Police hope other teens learn from the accused’s mistake.

“We are asking parents to take these incidents as an opportunity to talk with their teenage children about the seriousness of actively participating in these types of trends they see on social media,” Police Chief Michael Eterno said.

The charges were approved by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, according to the MPPD.