From Cuba to the Dominican Republic to right here in Chicago, millions of Afro Latinos speak their culture through their language and wear their African heritage on their bodies, especially in their hair texture.

U.S. health advisers endorsed a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson on Friday, putting the nation on the cusp of adding an easier-to-use option to fight the pandemic.

No new cases of two COVID-19 variants believed to be more transmissible have been discovered in Illinois in the past seven days, according to data released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Federal and state officials will open a mass vaccination site at the United Center on March 10 that could administer an additional 6,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine per day, officials announced Friday.

The Lakeview alderman, who owns the restaurant Ann Sather, admitted he flouted the ban on indoor dining in December by allowing a “very limited number of our regular diners to eat inside the restaurant.” He faced a maximum fine of $10,500.

As restaurants in Greektown work to recover from the coronavirus pandemic and its restrictions, the neighborhood is hosting its inaugural Greektown Restaurant Week. 

With the federal government ramping up its vaccine distribution efforts and a third vaccine potentially becoming available next week, Chicago could begin vaccinating more groups of residents in March, according to Dr. Allison Arwady.

Socially distant seating, mask mandates and temperature checks will be in place at many venues, but some experts remain concerned about community spread and the threat of more contagious variants of COVID-19. 

Like a lot of urban growers, Stephanie Dunn of Star Farm sells her produce at farmers markets around Chicago. Now she’s about to start up a different kind of farmer’s market: her own food co-op housed in a building she is preparing to renovate thanks to a grant from the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund.

Chicago could start receiving Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine in early March, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Wednesday.

The Chicago Board of Education has approved a new measure allowing Chicago Public Schools to track which teachers and employees have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine. Down the line, it would allow the district to require vaccinations.

Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine offers strong protection against severe COVID-19, according to an analysis released Wednesday by U.S. regulators that sets the stage for a final decision on a new and easier-to-use shot to help tame the pandemic.

Illinois will soon be able to ramp up its vaccination effort. “Things are getting better,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday. “This pandemic will end, but in the meantime, we have to mask up, help each other out and we’ll get through this together.”

U.S. residents can expect to live one year less, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that uses data from the first half of 2020. That decrease in average life expectancy is even steeper in Black and Latino communities. 

Hospitals don’t just offer health care. Many offer care for the human spirit as well as the human body. We talk with a chaplain at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park about the challenges of ministering to patients and families during a pandemic.

Visitors to Chicago who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not have to quarantine for 10 days or record a negative test for COVID-19, the city’s top doctor said Tuesday.