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.

It is the third day in a row that fewer than 8,000 new cases of the virus have been reported during a month that is on pace to exceed 300,000 infections.

Faulting inaction in Washington, governors and state lawmakers are racing to get pandemic relief to small-business owners, the unemployed, renters and others whose livelihoods have been upended by COVID-19.

The coronavirus testing numbers that have guided much of the nation’s response to the pandemic are likely to be erratic over the next week or so, experts said Friday, as fewer people get tested during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

The pandemic in Illinois reached another sobering mark on Friday, after health officials reported 12,029 total deaths linked to the pandemic and 705,063 infections. 

The coronavirus presented huge challenges for the fall semester for U.S. colleges that opened the academic year with in-person learning, including some that took a battering from outbreaks.

In normal times, Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year. But these are not normal times: The economy is tanking and crowds are expected to be dramatically diminished as coronavirus cases spike and shoppers do more of their purchases online.

As Americans kick off a holiday season under the cloud of the coronavirus pandemic, Illinois health officials reported more than 12,000 new and probable cases of the virus across the state, and 131 additional deaths.

With COVID-19 cases surging nationwide, President-elect Joe Biden called on Americans to take precautions to try to stem the tide of the virus, by wearing masks and practicing social distancing.