The numbing figure was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The number of dead, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna

Inspectors found the River North eatery to be in full compliance with COVID-19 regulations after a probe on Thursday, said Isaac Reichman, a spokesman for the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

The effort to inoculate all 850,000 health care workers and long-term care facility residents in Illinois from COVID-19 will be “substantially complete” next week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday the toughest restrictions in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus will lift in three Illinois regions — but will stay in place in Chicago and suburban Cook County.

A variant of the coronavirus first discovered in the United Kingdom and believed to be more transmissible is present in Chicago, city health officials announced Friday.

Respiratory therapists care for some of the sickest COVID-19 patients. We hear from two local therapists about their experiences and workloads amid the pandemic.

No one was injured in the fire, which was caused when the restaurant’s fireplace damper malfunctioned around 9 p.m. Wednesday, said Liz Lombardo Stark, a spokesperson for the Rush Street landmark.

The latest figures for jobless claims, issued Thursday by the Labor Department, remain at levels never seen until the virus struck. Before the pandemic, weekly applications typically numbered around 225,000. 

Chicago restaurants and bars have been prohibited from serving patrons indoors since Oct. 30, when a sustained and grave surge of coronavirus cases threatened to overwhelm the city and state’s hospitals and health care system.

New mass vaccination sites will open on Friday at Olive Harvey City College, on Tuesday at Kennedy-King City College and on Wednesday at Truman City College, officials announced.

City health officials will allow Chicagoans 65 and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19 starting next week — if there are doses available after health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities are vaccinated, the city’s top doctor told aldermen Wednesday.

The nation’s overall death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 380,000, according to Johns Hopkins University, and is closing in fast on the number of Americans killed in World War II, or about 407,000. Confirmed infections have topped 22.8 million.

Investigators with the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection conducted 105 investigations from Thursday through Sunday.

The Trump administration on Tuesday instructed states to begin vaccinating Americans over age 65 for COVID-19, as well as those with chronic medical conditions. We discuss Chicago’s rollout with an infectious disease specialist.

The short answer: Yes. Regardless of previous infection, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people should plan on getting vaccinated when it’s their turn.

“Most people survive this illness but some don’t,” Illinois’ top doctor said before receiving her first dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. “I don’t want to gamble with my life and I don’t want anyone else to gamble with theirs.”