Public Health
COVID-19 in Illinois: 7,123 New Cases, 146 Additional Deaths
The coronavirus pandemic has made internet access more essential than ever as people work and learn from home. But not everyone has a device to connect to the web — or internet access itself.
CPS CEO Janice Jackson and school leaders say 77,343 students plan to return to schools beginning in January and February 2021. That’s about about 37% of eligible pre-K through eighth grade students.
COVID-19 in Illinois: 7,359 New Cases, 117 Additional Deaths
Facing a nearly $4 billion budget hole, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday outlined millions in cuts that he called a “first step” toward balancing the state’s budget.
Travelers coming to Chicago from nearly every U.S. state, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, must quarantine for 10 days or record a negative test for COVID-19, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office announced Tuesday.
Plus: IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike on ‘Chicago Tonight’
The state’s first round of COVID-19 vaccinations outside of Chicago took place Tuesday morning in Peoria, where five health care workers rolled up their sleeves to get their first dose.
A COVID-19 vaccination was administered for the first time Tuesday morning in Austin, a Chicago neighborhood ravaged by the virus. Mayor Lori Lightfoot called it “history in the making.”
Suburban Cook County health officials outlined their vaccination plans Monday as they await the shipment of 20,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
COVID-19 in Illinois: 7,214 New Cases, 103 Additional Deaths
“Today is a very special day that should instill us all with optimism and hope,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday as the state received an initial shipment of about 43,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer.
Be on the lookout for phony treatments and phishing messages, according to the Better Business Bureau, as scammers look to take advantage of pandemic angst and the public’s desire to get vaccinated.
The biggest vaccination campaign in U.S. history kicked off Monday as health workers rolled up their sleeves for shots to protect them from COVID-19 and start beating back the pandemic — a day of optimism even as the nation’s death toll closed in on 300,000.
The first of many freezer-packed COVID-19 vaccine vials made their way to distribution sites across the United States on Sunday, as the nation’s pandemic deaths approached the horrifying new milestone of 300,000.
A vaccine is on the way, but it will likely be months before it is widely available. That means masks and social distancing protocols will need to remain in place, the governor said this week.
President Donald Trump has been pressing for quick approval for the vaccine and tweeted directly at Hahn earlier Friday, complaining that FDA “is still a big, old, slow turtle.” Trump has publicly bashed the pace of the FDA’s vaccine review process.
COVID-19 in Illinois: 9,420 New Cases, 190 Additional Deaths
More than 1,000 Illinoisans have died of the coronavirus this week alone, during a time in which the U.S. has repeatedly set single-day records for COVID-19 fatalities.
Across the country, contact tracers and emergency room doctors are hearing repeatedly from new coronavirus patients that they socialized over Thanksgiving with people outside their households.
“Many employees have told us they do not feel safe, nor do they feel the branches are safe for patrons, given the city's current positivity rate,” said Anders Lindall, a spokesman for AFSCME Council 31, which represents about 900 library employees.
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