“In early 2020, I spent nine weeks traveling the country, talking to people about being well and staying focused. It was exhilarating. Then the pandemic hit and shook us all,” Oprah Winfrey said in a statement. “Now, it’s more important than ever to be and stay well and strong.”

The number of people seeking help from the Greater Chicago Food Depository and affiliated food pantries has surged 60% since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down the nation's economy and thrown tens of millions of people out of work. 

Neighbors unanimously spoke out Thursday against General Iron’s application for a permit to move its Lincoln Park metal shredding operation to the Southeast Side, but questioned whether their concerns would even count.

About 60 miles south of Chicago, Kankakee County has seen 874 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday, with 36 deaths and 204 recoveries. Local officials weigh in on the state’s handling of the pandemic.

As Illinois faces record levels of unemployment, the state has launched a website aiming to connect job seekers with employers and provide free online access to workforce development courses.

A temporary ban put in place by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has kept children in foster care from having supervised visits with their parents and siblings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright warned on Thursday that the U.S. lacks a plan to produce and fairly distribute a coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available.

Since 2018, residents of McKinley Park have raised concerns about the MAT Asphalt plant in their neighborhood. Now, several environmental groups say the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issue. 

An environmental dispute in the Southwest Side neighborhood of McKinley Park has loomed large in the community’s response to the pandemic. 

The state’s stay-at-home order is still in effect. Restaurants are still closed — and so is the lakefront path. Illinois hospitals are once again welcoming non-coronavirus patients — and the revenue they bring.

Illinois has set a new record for the number of coronavirus-related deaths in a single 24-hour period: 192. To date, the 3,792 deaths in Illinois are linked to the virus and 84,698 people have tested positive for it, according to health officials.

In a 12-page ruling, the judge said the Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Albany Park and Logos Baptist Ministries in Niles “provided no evidence” that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order targeted religion.

The global economic shutdown has impacted industries across the board, but hospital supply chains have been hit especially hard — and months into the pandemic, it remains a day-to-day challenge.

Advice from the top U.S. disease control experts on how to safely reopen businesses and institutions during the coronavirus pandemic was more detailed and restrictive than the plan released by the White House last month.

The COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown has hit hard in Chicago communities that have historically suffered from disinvestment and crime, including the Far South Side communities of Roseland and Pullman.

Chicago’s Roseland Community Hospital has been on the front lines of the pandemic. But it wasn’t included in Illinois’ recent distribution of remdesivir, a move that’s angered hospital officials.