Lightfoot on return of mask mandates: 'everything's on the table'

When asked Monday whether mask mandates may return to Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said while the city is "not in the danger zone," if the city sees another COVID surge, then "everything's on the table."

Lightfoot continues to implore more people to get vaccinated.

"We'll bring it to your house. We'll come to your place of business. Whatever it takes, we want people to get vaccinated," Lightfood said. "If we see a surge, if we see anything like we've seen in the past couple cycles, then everything's on the table. Right now I feel confident with the measures that are in place, but everything's subject to change based upon the data and the science."

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More than 50 major healthcare groups banded together to call for COVID vaccine mandates for all healthcare workers. Rush University announced all staff, contractors and volunteers must be fully vaccinated no later than October 1st.

"I think that these mandates are really going to be necessary," Dr. Shikha Jain told FOX 32 News. "I'm really proud to see so many of these institutions and healthcare organizations starting to mandate, and I am expecting to see that in other businesses as well, as we move forward."

With the State of California and the City of New York requiring public employees to either get the vaccine or get tested weekly, could Chicago employees be next?

"We'll be having those conversations with our partners in organized labor to make sure that everybody is walking on the journey at the same time, but we have to look at a variety of options," said Lightfoot.

Mayor Lightfoot said she is most concerned about the Delta Variant of COVID spreading among the unvaccinated population.