You’re washing your hands countless times a day to try to ward off the coronavirus. You should also wash that extension of your hand and breeding ground for germs — your phone. But cleaning your phone improperly can damage it. 

Healthy students should still go to school, but for the next 30 days there should be no more parades, professional sports game, rock concerts and no banquets anywhere in Illinois as officials seek to prevent further spread of the novel coronavirus.

The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is being felt by industries and businesses in Chicago and across Illinois, from large hotel chains and restaurants to independent movie theaters and music venues. 

Taking drastic action Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced he is cutting off travel from Europe to the U.S. and moving to ease the economic cost of a viral pandemic that is roiling global financial markets and disrupting the daily lives of Americans.

Major weekend events celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago have been postponed due concerns over the novel coronavirus. To date, 25 people have tested positive for the virus in Illinois.

A coalition of health care institutions and professionals awarded dozens of businesses on the city’s West Side $500,000 in small business grants last year, doubling the goal it had set to achieve by 2021.

State and local health officials reported the first cases of the novel coronavirus outside of Cook County as they announced eight more people have tested positive for the virus.

No additional students or faculty members at Vaughn Occupational High School have tested positive for COVID-19 after one staffer was found to have contracted the virus last week.

There are currently no vaccines or drugs to treat or prevent COVID-19, yet some companies are selling products purporting to do just that. “The FDA considers the sale and promotion of fraudulent COVID-19 products to be a threat to the public health,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn.

An Indiana University student landed in O’Hare International Airport after a trip to Italy. She took a train to a St. Louis station shared by Amtrak and the Greyhound bus service. Her father failed to heed a self-quarantine warning. 

In Illinois, 11 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to state and local health officials. “I want folks to understand this is going to affect your daily life,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at a Monday news conference.

From Miami to Seattle, nursing homes and other facilities for the elderly are stockpiling masks and thermometers, preparing for staff shortages and screening visitors to protect a particularly vulnerable population from the coronavirus.

The White House overruled health officials who wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines because of the new coronavirus, a federal official told The Associated Press.

A Chicago woman in her 50s who works at Chicago Public Schools in the city’s Portage Park neighborhood has tested positive for COVID-19. 

Who should be wearing masks? Is the virus seasonal? A local infectious disease physician answers these questions and others about COVID-19.

A man in his 20s has tested positive for COVID-19 after traveling to Italy, marking the fifth case of the virus in Illinois. The patient is hospitalized in isolation at Rush University Medical Center, where he’s reported to be in stable condition.