Nine days after Chicago began reopening — and after days of massive protests against police brutality and unrest — the rate of confirmed cases of the coronavirus is still dropping, city health officials said Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted the guidelines Friday, along with a second set for organizing and attending big gatherings such as concerts, sporting events, protests and political rallies.

As those of us who are accustomed to sniffling, coughing and sneezing our way through spring and summer already know, it’s allergy season. But during a pandemic, those coughs could signal something more than a high pollen count.

A plan to fast-track applications from restaurants and cafes to serve customers outdoors cleared a key city panel Thursday, as city officials vowed to do everything possible to help restaurants stay afloat amid the pandemic.

Amid a pandemic that has been linked to the deaths of more than 2,000 people in Chicago, the city is cautiously reopening. But some communities are facing another hurdle: rebuilding.

Seven years ago, the town of Washington in central Illinois was hit with a tornado. Now, some say the COVID-19 shutdown is an even bigger disaster.

A group of Republican lawmakers are calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to lift additional restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus by Friday — weeks ahead of the timeline outlined in the governor’s reopening plan for Illinois.

Herd immunity is when a virus can no longer spread easily because enough people are immune to it. That lowers the chances of the virus jumping from person to person and reaching those who haven’t been infected yet.

Illinois officials are dipping their toes into the idea of allowing swimming as the state begins its second week in phase three of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan.

As the number of COVID-19 cases decline at the Cook County Jail, Sheriff Tom Dart announced Monday he would resume allowing in-person family visits for detainees for the first time in months.

Chicago Public Library branches are reopened as of Monday, but patrons will experience a few new restrictions. 

Illinois’ total number of coronavirus cases reached 127,757 on Sunday as the state again reported fewer than 1,000 new cases over the past 24 hours. But doctors and officials fear that number could spike in the near future.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the milestone was the result of the “incredible work of so many people behind the scenes.”

Several authors of a large study that raised safety concerns about malaria drugs for coronavirus patients have retracted the report, saying independent reviewers were not able to verify information that’s been widely questioned by other scientists.

According to a new study, cycling through Cook County Jail — a facility once dubbed the “largest-known source” of COVID-19 in the U.S. — is associated with roughly 16% of all documented cases of the virus in Illinois and Chicago through mid-April.

The placenta provides nutrients and oxygen to a developing fetus, among other things. In a small study, researchers found the placentas from pregnant women with COVID-19 showed signs of injury.