Everyone in Chicago, regardless of their vaccination status, must wear a mask indoors starting Friday, Chicago’s top doctor announced Tuesday. The mandate comes amid the city’s fourth surge in COVID-19 infections, driven by the more transmissible delta variant.

U.S. health experts are expected to recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after they received their second dose of the shot, to ensure lasting protection against the coronavirus.

The vaccines authorized in the U.S. continue to offer very strong protection against severe disease and death. But laboratory blood tests have suggested that antibodies can wane over time. That doesn’t mean protection disappears, but it could mean protection is not as strong or that it could take longer for the body to fight back against an infection.

State fairs in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin also are offering COVID-19 vaccinations as the delta variant spreads nationwide and relaxed masking leaves some public health officials concerned about another surge in infections.

Chicago Public Schools will not require eligible students to get a COVID-19 vaccine, but once in-person classes resume Aug. 30, those who are unvaccinated and test positive for the virus must quarantine for 14 days.

How do you ask someone to give you more space in the checkout line? Or tell your boss you don’t feel comfortable returning to the office? We asked a trio of experts for advice as part of our series.

How do you ask someone if they have been vaccinated? Or tell an unvaccinated family member they can’t come to your dinner party? We asked a trio of experts for advice. 

Across the country, hospital systems are facing a shortage of nurses. In Cook County, the shortage prompted nurses at Stroger Hospital to go on strike this summer, for the first time in decades.

Humanitarian aid is flowing into Haiti following Saturday’s  deadly 7.2-magnitude earthquake. However, the Caribbean nation’s political unrest, as well as an approaching tropical storm, is complicating efforts.

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Inclusive Economy Lab found that 26% of Black students at Chicago Public Schools experience homelessness during their academic tenure. We discuss those findings and what can be done to better support homeless students.

Students and teachers at Chicago Public Schools head back to the classroom this month. We speak with the district’s interim CEO and an official from the health department about returning to school as COVID-19 cases rise.

Americans at high risk from COVID-19 because of severely weakened immune systems are now allowed to get a third vaccination in hopes of better protection, a policy change endorsed Friday by influential government advisers.

The new measures are an attempt to stem the rising tide of COVID-19 cases that has pushed hospitals to the breaking point, including in the Dallas area, where top officials warned they are running out of beds in their pediatric intensive care units.

A federal judge on Friday refused landlords’ request to put the Biden administration’s new eviction moratorium on hold, though she ruled that the freeze is illegal.

With less than three weeks until in-person classes resume, Chicago Public Schools has announced it will require all teachers and staff to get a COVID-19 vaccine by the fall.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to formally recommend the extra shots for certain immune-compromised groups after a meeting Friday of its outside advisers.