Saturday’s disruptions weren’t just due to the virus, however. Wintry weather made Chicago — where forecasts called for 9 inches of snow — the worst place in the country for travelers. More than 800 flights were scrubbed at O’Hare Airport and more than 250 at Midway Airport.

With coronavirus infections soaring, the return from schools’ winter break will be different than planned for some as administrators again tweak protocols and make real-time adjustments in response to the shifting pandemic. All are signaling a need to stay flexible.

Some 300 new laws will take effect in Illinois in the new year. They range from changing how gun licenses are processed — to regulating pet sales.

A new report from ProPublica Illinois details the catastrophic loss of dialysis patients during the pandemic. Reporter Duaa Eldeib joins “Chicago Tonight” to discuss her findings 

More than 5,600 people are hospitalized with COVID. And COVID patients are occupying 34% of the state’s ICU beds.

Chicago Public Schools distributed over 150 thousand PCR tests Tuesday at more than 300 schools in communities hardest hit by the pandemic. Students who test positive will be asked to stay home.

The General Assembly canceled its Jan. 4 and 6 session dates, and will likely call the session off the following week as well “amid the ongoing global pandemic.”

Officials are urging the public to get vaccinated and get tested — but many people are reporting challenges in finding tests.

The fast-spreading mutant version of the virus has cast a pall over Christmas and New Year’s, forcing communities to scale back or call off their festivities just weeks after it seemed as if Americans were about to enjoy an almost normal holiday season. 

The Transportation Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that the aircraft will be permitted to fly in Indonesia, but only after airlines carry out airworthiness directives.

Chief Judge Timothy Evans announced Tuesday that his office — which covers the courts and the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center — will impose COVID vaccine mandates. This after the Chief Judge was criticized for previously not mandating the vaccine for all employees.

The guidance has raised questions about how it was crafted and why it was changed now, in the middle of another wintertime spike in cases, this one driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant.

State legislatures across the country will be responding to the possibility of seismic change to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion across the U.S.

Flight cancellations that disrupted holiday travel stretched into Monday, with major U.S. airlines each canceling dozens of flights.

With cases of COVID-19 skyrocketing and hospitalizations surging in Illinois, officials are pleading with unvaccinated residents to change their minds about receiving shots.

More than 700 flights entering, leaving or flying within the U.S. were called off, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. That figure was down from nearly 1,000 on Saturday. More than 50 flights were already canceled for Monday.