As officials imposed sweeping restrictions designed to stop a sustained and grave surge of the coronavirus, Chicago health officials stopped showcasing the number of people who test positive for COVID-19.

“Communities that have been most negatively affected by COVID-19 are less likely to say they would to vaccinate their children and themselves against COVID-19,” said Dr. Matt Davis of Lurie Children’s Hospital.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert said Sunday that the U.S. may see “surge upon a surge” of the coronavirus in the weeks after Thanksgiving.

It is the third day in a row that fewer than 8,000 new cases of the virus have been reported during a month that is on pace to exceed 300,000 infections.

Guadalupe Lopez died earlier this month of COVID-19. He was 58 and among the essential workers who must show up to work, and one of the more than 9,100 people who have died from the disease in the Chicago area.

Faulting inaction in Washington, governors and state lawmakers are racing to get pandemic relief to small-business owners, the unemployed, renters and others whose livelihoods have been upended by COVID-19.

The pandemic in Illinois reached another sobering mark on Friday, after health officials reported 12,029 total deaths linked to the pandemic and 705,063 infections. 

The coronavirus presented huge challenges for the fall semester for U.S. colleges that opened the academic year with in-person learning, including some that took a battering from outbreaks.

A recent survey found that just 51% of U.S. adults say they would get the COVID-19 vaccine — and just 32% of Black adults. We discuss the cause of medical mistrust and how to rebuild it. 

As Americans kick off a holiday season under the cloud of the coronavirus pandemic, Illinois health officials reported more than 12,000 new and probable cases of the virus across the state, and 131 additional deaths.

Chicago’s northernmost neighborhood has reported 5,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The pandemic and rising case counts have heightened food insecurity across Chicago, and Rogers Park has been anything but immune. 

With COVID-19 cases surging nationwide, President-elect Joe Biden called on Americans to take precautions to try to stem the tide of the virus, by wearing masks and practicing social distancing. 

“Adding debt is not a long-term solution to structural imbalance,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “Short-term borrowing is a short-term Band-Aid to address the urgency of a short-term problem like one caused by a pandemic.” 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local authorities have begged people not to travel and urged them to keep their Thanksgiving celebrations small.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot urged all Chicagoans on Wednesday to rethink their Thanksgiving plans if they include travel or a gathering with those outside their immediate household amid a continuing surge of the coronavirus.

According to the latest data from state health officials, the city of Chicago has 921 intensive care unit beds, and more than 200 are currently available. But in some regions, the numbers are much different.