ILLINOIS (WAND) - Gov. JB Pritzker is planning to lift mask requirements for most indoor spaces at the end of February, but the measure will stay in effect for schools.

The state is on track to lift the indoor mask mandate on Feb. 28, 2022. There will still be mask requirements where they are federally mandated, including on public transit and in high-risk settings, such as health care facilities and congregate care. 

Masks requirements will also remain active in daycare settings and P-12 schools, the governor's office said. 

In schools, students, teachers and staff are spending time in close spaces. Illinois is currently appealing a temporary restraining order on the state's school mask mandate, which came from a recent ruling by a Sangamon County judge.

The governor said the worst of the omicron variant of COVID-19 has passed in Illinois. Hospitalization numbers in the state are quickly dropping, and the governor said COVID-19 hospitalization metrics are seeing their fastest decline since the pandemic began in early 2020. 

The state's daily total of COVID-19 patients in the hospital has dropped from over 7,300 to about 2,500 as of Feb. 9, which is a 66 percent drop. Illinois' daily number of patients needing ICU care has dropped by 63 percent.

Illinois has 20 percent of its ICU beds available statewide as of Wednesday. That's a major increase from a low of below 8 percent from four weeks before Feb. 9. 

"Vaccines work. Masks work," Pritzker said in a Wednesday press conference. "And as a result of them and the tremendous commitment of our state's residents, we are on track to come out on the other side of this latest COVID-19 storm in better shape than even the doctors expected." 

The public will no longer have to wear masks in restaurants, grocery stores and other indoor spaces after the mandate lifts. 

The governor said masks are still encouraged to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as they continue to be an effective way to prevent outbreaks at establishments. 

"The lifting of the state mask requirement should not invite people not wearing masks to dissuade those who choose to wear masks," the governor said. "Remember that if we remove masks or not, COVID-19 has not gone away."Â