Inspectors found 27 people in the Chinese restaurant on the day before Valentine’s Day not wearing masks or following social distancing rules, according to a statement from the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Scientists widely agree that the U.S. simply doesn’t have enough of a handle on the variants to roll back public health measures and is at risk of fumbling yet another phase of the pandemic after letting the virus rage through the country over the last year.

President Joe Biden is promising a majority of elementary schools will be open five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office.

Bars and restaurants in Chicago can now expand their capacity for indoor service. We discuss that and other COVID-19 developments with Dr. Susan Bleasdale, medical director of infection prevention and control at University of Illinois Health.

On Monday, officials announced all city-run coronavirus testing sites will be closed Tuesday due to the weather. The sites have been closed since Friday in observance of Lincoln’s Birthday and Presidents Day.

Starting this week, more coronavirus vaccines will be allocated to people receiving their second dose of the vaccine than those getting their first due to limited federal vaccine supplies, according to officials.

Leaders of several major U.S. airlines met online Friday with White House officials to press their case against requiring coronavirus tests for passengers on domestic flights, saying it would undermine the already fragile industry.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its long-awaited road map for getting students back to classrooms. But the agency cannot force schools to reopen, and agency officials were careful to say they are not calling for a mandate that all U.S. schools be reopened.

Chicago’s oldest hospital is closer to shuttering this spring after filing for bankruptcy. What that may mean for patients.

A variant of the coronavirus first discovered in South Africa and believed to be more transmissible is present in Illinois, state health officials announced Thursday.

With federal vaccine supplies steadily increasing, Illinois will soon begin vaccinating people ages 16 and older who have certain underlying health conditions, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday. But Chicago is still struggling to meet demand for the vaccine.

“Just cause there’s no parade doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate,” said Tim McSweeney, chair of the South Side Irish Parade Committee. Find out how you can celebrate the luck of the Irish this year. 

Starting Thursday — the beginning of the Valentine’s Day weekend — bars and restaurants in Chicago and suburban Cook County can seat no more than 50 people or 25% of overall room capacity, up from a maximum of 25 diners or drinkers, officials said.

The poll suggests that substantial skepticism persists more than a month and a half into a U.S. vaccination drive that has encountered few if any serious side effects. Resistance was found to run higher among younger people, people without college degrees, Black Americans and Republicans.

The two states and the territory join Hawaii as the only areas with fewer than 15 new COVID-19 cases per day, per 100,000 population, officials said.

The coronavirus most likely first appeared in humans after jumping from an animal, a team of international and Chinese scientists looking for the origins of COVID-19 said Tuesday, dismissing as unlikely an alternate theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab.