Pfizer and Moderna tested shots updated to better match the omicron that surged over the winter, but that first mutant has disappeared — replaced by its genetically distinct relatives. The two newest omicron cousins, called BA.4 and BA.5, together now make up half of U.S. cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Coronavirus
Jun 23, 2022 |
One week ago, federal officials lowered the risk warning level to high for Cook County. But even as confirmed cases of COVID-19 continued to drop, hospitalizations rose just enough across Cook County to trigger an increase in the warning level by federal officials.
Jun 23, 2022 |
Cook County budget officials will only have to close an $18.2 million budget shortfall in 2023, the smallest gap in a decade, avoiding tax hikes and layoffs. Thebudget has been boosted by sales taxes, corporate income taxes and revenue generated by the construction boom.
Jun 21, 2022 |
Within days of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control approving vaccine courses for children six-months through 4 years old, area hospitals, pediatricians and health care centers are beginning to put those doses in children’s arms.
Jun 21, 2022 |
Factors out of most people’s reach have caused everything from high gas prices to shortages of products like baby formula and tampons. But there is another shortage that we can do something about: it’s the supply of blood that hospitals and their patients depend on daily.
Jun 20, 2022 |
Officials granted double the number of COVID-19 vaccine exemptions to members of the Chicago Police Department than they did to members of any other city department, according to a WTTW News analysis of data provided by the mayor’s office.
Jun 18, 2022 |
Roughly 18 million kids will now be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, but it remains to be seen how many will ultimately get the vaccines. Less than a third of children ages 5 to 11 have done so since vaccination opened up to them last November.
Jun 17, 2022 |
U.S. regulators on Friday authorized the first COVID-19 shots for infants and preschoolers, paving the way for vaccinations to begin next week.
Jun 16, 2022 |
COVID-19 posed a high risk in Chicago and Cook County for 21 days, but neither state, county nor city officials imposed new restrictions designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Chicagoans should consider the CDC’s medium level of risk warning as “a yellow light of caution,” Dr. Allison Arwady has said.
Jun 15, 2022 |
The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisers gave a thumbs-up to vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer for the littlest kids.
Jun 14, 2022 |
Even as COVID-19 case numbers increased in recent weeks after an early spring lull, Lightfoot said she has no intention of returning to remote learning when classes resume in August.
Jun 14, 2022 |
U.S. regulators have historically inspected baby formula plants at least once a year, but they did not inspect any of the three biggest manufacturers in 2020, according to federal records reviewed by The Associated Press.
Jun 13, 2022 |
Federal health officials said Sunday that kid-sized doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines appear to be safe and effective for kids under 5, a key step toward a long-awaited decision to begin vaccinating the youngest American children.
Jun 10, 2022 |
The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international air travelers to the U.S. take a COVID-19 test within a day before boarding their flights, easing one of the last remaining government mandates meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Jun 9, 2022 |
That stance marks a sharp reversal of the U.N. health agency’s initial assessment of the pandemic’s origins. WHO concluded last year that it was “extremely unlikely” COVID-19 might have spilled into humans from a lab.
Jun 2, 2022 |
White House COVID-19 coordinator Ashish Jha outlined the administration’s planning for the last remaining ineligible age group to get shots. He said the Food and Drug Administration’s outside panel of advisers will meet on June 14-15 to evaluate the Pfizer and Moderna shots for younger kids.
