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.
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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.
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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.”
Illinois has seen more tornadoes in 2026 than in any year on record.
Following several more tornadoes confirmed this week across the state, Illinois has recorded 143 tornadoes so far in 2026, beating the previous record of 142 tornadoes set in 2024. With reliable records dating back to 1950, Illinois averages just 54 tornadoes per year. But in recent years, the state has experienced many more:
2023: 121
2024: 142
2025: 126
2026: 143 and counting
Unlike 2024, when a record two-day tornado outbreak accounted for a large share of the year’s tornadoes, the activity in 2026 has been spread out across several months.
On Thursday, June 11, a tornado outbreak brought at least 21 confirmed tornadoes to northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, 13 of them in Illinois. Two tornadoes that day — in Streator, Illinois, and Hebron, Indiana — reached rare EF-3 intensity, with winds over 135 miles per hour. Numerous injuries were reported from the storms, but there were no fatalities.
Confirmed tornadoes from June 11:
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Long Point to Streator, IL: EF-3
Wenona/Osage Township, IL: EF-1
Graymont to Dwight, IL: EF-1
Lee, IL: EF-U
Harpster to Elliott, IL: EF-0
Pembroke Township (Leesville), IL: EF-U
St. John to Schererville, IN: EF-0
Paxton/Loda, IL: EF-1
Merrillville to Hobart, IN: EF-2
Ludlow, IL: EF-1
Cedar Lake, IN: EF-0
Schneider to Hebron, IN: EF-0
Watseka, IL: EF-0
Hebron to Kouts, IN: EF-3
Wellington/Prairie Green Township, IL: EF-1
Bartlett, IL: EF-1
Boswell to Atkinson, IN: EF-1
Ade to Mount Ayr, IN: EF-0
Naperville to Lisle, IL: EF-0
Hickory Hills to Garfield Ridge: EF-2
Morocco, IN: EF-0
Though most of the Chicago area dodged severe weather from storms this week, the National Weather Service confirmed a brief tornado touchdown Wednesday night in Lake County near Grayslake. The EF-0 tornado had estimated winds of 80 miles per hour and was on the ground for about a quarter-mile. Damage consisted of several downed or split trees and sporadic minor roof damage along a narrow corridor in the Saddlebrook Farms subdivision.
Four more tornadoes were confirmed Wednesday in western and central Illinois. NWS crews are still surveying damage in central Illinois, and more tornadoes may be added to the count in the coming days.
With 143 tornadoes so far this year, Illinois leads the nation in tornado count for the third time in the last four years — a remarkable statistic for a state not typically thought of as being in Tornado Alley.
The recent increase in tornado activity across Illinois and the Midwest fits research showing a shift in tornado-favorable environments away from parts of the traditional Plains Tornado Alley and farther east into the Midwest and South. Climate change is one likely factor, as warming temperatures are expected to make the Plains hotter and drier overall, shifting tornado ingredients eastward toward the Mississippi River.
BEECHER CITY, Ill. (WAND) – Farms were damaged in Effingham County Wednesday evening when a powerful storm swept through at around 8 p.m.
The McKay Farm in Beecher City was heavily damaged when the rapidly moving storm hit.
“Two buildings were totally destroyed,” Dan McKay told WAND News on Thursday. “We’ve got five grain bins and they’re all damaged.”
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The buildings collapsed onto farm equipment and a semi that were parked in the structures. A utility pole was snapped and ripped out of the ground.
In nearby Shumway, another farm was hit. A barn collapsed, with a grain bin being ripped apart and debris traveling several hundred feet through a nearby corn field. A house on the property was also damaged.
