As the decision looms for President-elect Joe Biden, a new analysis argues for targeting the first vaccines to the same low-income Black, Hispanic and Native American households that have disproportionately suffered from the coronavirus.

Thursday's report from the Labor Department said initial claims for jobless aid dropped from 787,000 the week before. Before the virus, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits each week had typically amounted to roughly 225,000. 

State health officials reported 238 coronavirus-related deaths Wednesday, setting a new record for the number of fatalities reported in a single day in Illinois as Dr. Ngozi Ezike urged residents to “stay the course.”

In giving the go-ahead for emergency use of the vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, Britain vaulted past the United States by at least a week. 

An official with the Teamsters Local 700 is calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other leaders to prioritize corrections officers due to the “high risk of exposure” to the disease he claimed remains in the jail.

Health care workers and nursing home residents should be at the front of the line when the first coronavirus vaccine shots become available, an influential government advisory panel said Tuesday.

The head of the agency responsible for authorizing COVID-19 vaccines said Tuesday that it would take the time needed to “get this right,” despite increasing pressure from President Donald Trump to speed up the process.

Anticipating a surge in coronavirus cases as result of Thanksgiving travel and gatherings, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said people should assume they’ve been exposed to the virus “and act like it.”

The first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine could be administered to health care workers in Chicago in three weeks, Chicago health officials said Tuesday.

Medical professionals in Chicago and across the country are braced for a fresh surge of coronavirus cases after millions of Americans ignored advice not to travel or gather over the Thanksgiving holiday. Dr. Emily Landon, an infectious disease specialist at UChicago Medicine, weighs in.

While the number of new COVID-19 cases have been declining in recent days, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the state is seeing a spike in hospitalizations and is “still very much in a precarious place.”

After city investigators responded to a call about a large party in the basement of 1612 W. Division Ave. early Sunday morning, they found a party with approximately 300 attendees, no social distancing and no face coverings.

The sheriff began feeling symptomatic on Nov. 20, his office said, and he immediately self-quarantined at that point. He has not worked in his office since Nov. 19.

If the FDA allows emergency use, Moderna expects to have 20 million doses ready for the U.S. by year’s end. Recipients will need two doses, so that’s enough for 10 million people. 

As officials imposed sweeping restrictions designed to stop a sustained and grave surge of the coronavirus, Chicago health officials stopped showcasing the number of people who test positive for COVID-19.

“Communities that have been most negatively affected by COVID-19 are less likely to say they would to vaccinate their children and themselves against COVID-19,” said Dr. Matt Davis of Lurie Children’s Hospital.