(Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images North America / Getty Images)
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The U.S. public health emergency ends May 11. For the first time in three years, the CDC will stop posting a national count of COVID-19 cases, among other changes.

Project Hope assists young mothers through their pregnancies and beyond. (WTTW News)

Project Hope supports young mothers through their pregnancies and beyond. Doulas give prenatal support, and care countinues with parenting classes, intervention screenings and peer groups.

(WTTW News)

More than 8,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since last summer when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott first started sending migrants to the city. However, citywide efforts are reaching a tipping point with limited resources and shelters at capacity.

(WTTW News)
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The Kennedy Expressway construction project that kicked off earlier this year had an unexpected effect on some of the 35th Ward’s unhoused residents: the scope of the work endangered those living in viaducts under the expressway.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization, speaks to journalists during a press conference about the Global WHO on World Health Day and the 75th anniversary at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday April 6, 2023. (Martial Trezzini / Keystone via AP)

The U.N. health agency’s officials said that even though the emergency phase was over, the pandemic hasn’t ended, noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Despite the decline, about 1 out of every 13 deaths in the U.S. in 2022 was associated COVID-19. The virus killed nearly 245,000 people in 2022, CDC data shows.

Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. rose to record levels during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a new report from the CDC details the deadly rise of fentanyl. (Agnes Bun / AFP / Getty Images)

Nearly 70,000 people in the U.S. died of drug overdoses that involved fentanyl in 2021, almost a four-fold increase over five years. By 2021, about two-thirds of all overdose deaths involved the potent synthetic opioid, according to the report.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks about Medicaid renewal efforts on May 1, 2023. (WTTW News)

During the pandemic, the number of low-income and disabled people who received government-backed health care grew in Illinois, and across the country, because at the height of COVID Congress made it illegal for states to kick anyone off Medicaid.

Adderall XR capsules are displayed on Feb. 24, 2023. Drug shortages are growing in the United States, and experts see no clear path to resolving them. (AP Photo / Jenny Kane, File)

In recent months, unexpected demand spikes, manufacturing problems and tight ingredient supplies have contributed to shortages that stress patients, parents and doctors.

(WTTW News)

Emergency measures designed to ensure people didn’t lose their health care during the COVID-19 pandemic are now being phased out.

(WTTW News)

It's been three months since a group of migrants was moved into the shuttered Wadsworth Elementary School in the Woodlawn community following objections from some nearby residents. Now, some locals have joined forces to help integrate their new neighbors into the community.

Jeremiah Johnson and his mother, Lamira Samson, climb over a parked freight train on their way to school. (Courtesy of ProPublica)
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It’s the stuff of nightmares for parents: children crawling under and over idling trains in order to get to school on the other side. Two ProPublica journalists spent months reporting on railroad safety and the kids who are risking life and limb to go to school.

(agilemktg1 / Flickr)

Emergency measures designed to ensure people didn’t lose their health care during the COVID-19 pandemic are now being phased out. People must once again prove their eligibility for the government=-backed insurance program.

Christine Hernandez. (WTTW News)

Despite more people receiving organs, it’s still not enough to meet high demand. Recently, the U.S. government announced a plan to revamp the way organ recipients are chosen and organs distributed. 

(WTTW News)
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Researchers studied 1,200 elementary and middle school CPS students over the last four years and found that Latino students are up to twice as likely to be at risk for depression and anxiety.

Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., March 16, 2022. (AP Photo / Allen G. Breed, File)
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The justices granted emergency requests from the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, maker of the drug mifepristone. They are appealing a lower court ruling that would roll back Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone.