Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday the toughest restrictions in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus could lift in regions across the state as soon as Jan. 15.

Once efforts to inoculate health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities from COVID-19 are complete, Illinois residents 65 and older as well as essential workers will be eligible for the vaccine, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday.

With cold weather here to stay for the foreseeable future, some restaurant and bar owners fear outdoor dining and carryout will not be enough to keep their businesses alive.

Chicago health officials have distributed 95% of the vaccine sent to the city by federal officials, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said, but has the capacity to handle more doses. The current pace is “frankly, unacceptable,” she said. “The federal government must step up.”

“People should be wary of anyone who offers the vaccine or promises priority access to the vaccine or a COVID-19 cure in exchange for money,” said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Health care workers have been among the first Illinoisans to get the coronavirus vaccine. Has the immunization provided relief? We hear from two doctors.

The Dugout Bar in Wrigleyville will remain closed indefinitely after police officers responding to a call for help about a person being attacked in the 900 block of Addison Street found a large New Year’s Eve party, officials said.

Noting over the weekend that the holidays may result in lower numbers related to the coronavirus, state health officials announced just under 4,500 new and probable cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.

The Illinois Department of Public Health on Thursday announced an additional 8,009 confirmed and probable coronavirus cases, the highest single-day total in two weeks.

Overworked, underfunded state public health departments are scrambling to patch together plans for administering vaccines. Counties and hospitals have taken different approaches, leading to long lines, confusion, frustration and jammed phone lines. 

Authorities arrested a suburban Milwaukee pharmacist Thursday suspected of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by removing it from refrigeration for two nights.

The Sinopharm vaccine had already been given to groups such as health care professionals and essential workers under emergency-use guidelines as part of China’s program to inoculate 50 million people before the Lunar New Year holiday in February.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis has worsened in Cook County, with more than 1,500 opiate-related deaths this year. To try and bring these numbers down, some groups see telehealth as an accessible way to bring treatment to people. 

California on Wednesday announced the nation’s second confirmed case of the new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus, offering a strong indication that the infection is spreading more widely in the United States.

Britain became the first country to authorize AstraZeneca’s inexpensive, easy-to-handle COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday, gaining another weapon against the virus amid a resurgence.

More than a half dozen large parties have been shut down by city officials in the past month, even as Chicago remains under a stay-at-home advisory designed to prevent people from contracting COVID-19.