I live in the blue state of Illinois. It depended where in the state one lived as to the severity of lockdowns. My take is rural areas just ignored all the nonsense from our governor. I live in a downstate metro area. My sense is Chicago was a lot more draconian as to covid mitigation rules. I was house setting in Cook county when Omicron hit and the county instituted Vax passes to get into bars and restaurants on Jan 1, 2022. That didn’t happen downstate. We did have have to put up with the ridiculous mitigation levels. If Covid got a little hot, the masks were ordered to be worn again and seating capacity was reduced, etc.
I noticed two general areas where the COVID lockdowns, etc. were ignored for the most part.
Out in the boonies, and in the heavily immigrant parts of some small cities.
Places where officialdom couldn’t make much of a fuss, albeit for different reasons.