A group of medical experts advising the National Institutes of Health says there is not enough evidence to recommend for or against the use of plasma therapy for patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

Mental health therapists’ caseloads are bulging. Waiting lists for appointments are growing. And anxiety and depression are rising among Americans amid the coronavirus crisis, research suggests. 

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois health officials are stressing the need to wear masks properly, covering the mouth and nose, and social distance during gatherings this weekend as positivity rates continue to rise throughout the state.

In Cook County, Black people are 26% more likely to get colon and rectum cancer than white people, according to the CDC. “Screening rates a bit lower, but they’re not that much lower,” said Dr. Ed McDonald, a gastroenterologist. “There’s something else going on.”

Antibodies that people make to fight the new coronavirus last for at least four months after diagnosis and do not fade quickly, as some earlier reports suggested, scientists have found.

Visitors to Chicago from Hawaii, Nebraska and North Carolina will be required to quarantine for two weeks starting Friday, city officials announced Tuesday. Indiana is also on the verge of being added to the quarantine order that includes 21 states and Puerto Rico.

City officials shut down five restaurants and clubs for violating rules designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday.

As summer nears its end, Chicago is seeing COVID-19 cases rise, and suburban Cook County is showing warning signs of increased risk of transmission of the virus, according to state officials. We check in with Chicago Department Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.

Monday is Overdose Awareness Day, an annual event aimed at reducing drug-related deaths and the stigma of substance use disorders. And it comes this year amid a dramatic spike in opioid-related overdoses and deaths in Chicago.

Those whose deaths were reported Sunday ranged in age from their 30s to their 80s, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. They were residents of Cook, Bureau, Lake and Madison counties.

State health officials on Friday reported another 10 counties, including suburban Cook, are showing warning signs of increased risk for COVID-19. And on Saturday, the state passed a grim milestone: more than 8,000 virus-related deaths.

As more and more schools and businesses around the country get the OK to reopen, college towns are moving in the opposite direction because of too much partying and too many COVID-19 infections among students.

Chicago health officials will continue to recommend that anyone exposed to someone diagnosed with the coronavirus be tested for COVID-19, despite new guidance from the CDC that ignited a firestorm of controversy.

Eight Cook County residents were among the 24 deaths reported by Illinois health officials Thursday as the state nears 8,000 virus-related deaths and more than 227,000 cases of COVID-19.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 2,157 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and another 37 virus-related deaths — including a teenage girl from Cook County.

City officials on Tuesday announced changes to Chicago’s quarantine order. Starting Friday, 18 states and Puerto Rico will be on the list.