The Latest Breaking News from Allison Arwady

The owner of the rebranded General Iron will ask an administrative judge to overturn City Hall’s rejection of its bid to open on the Southeast Side.

Case counts have remained relatively flat across most of the state, but the average seven-day positivity rate is at the highest point seen in a month. COVID deaths across the state have continued to plummet. The city is averaging less than one viral death per day.

The low ICU total is just one facet of the state’s broad improvement in COVID-19 metrics over the past month.

Chicago’s at-home vaccination program will be offered four days a week instead of seven beginning April 1. Gift card incentives will be limited by ZIP codes.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady advised Chicagoans to enjoy the sense of normalcy — but to be ready for mitigations to return in case of another surge. Arwady added any such move would just be “temporary,” and “hopefully, it’s not something we’ll need again.”

In a nearly 20-minute defense of the project, Ald. Susan Garza lashed out at community groups, environmentalists, the media, City Hall, the public health commissioner and, most notably, her political ally Mayor Lori Lightfoot for preventing the business to open in her ward.

CHICAGO — Chicago’s public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady suggested Tuesday that the end of the city’s indoor mask mandate could align with the lifting of Illinois’ requirement on Feb. 28 after all, even if the city’s COVID-19 metrics haven’t been at a lower level for long enough.

Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said city officials are following the same metrics they have been throughout the pandemic, but they might ease up a bit to avoid creating confusion when Illinois’ mask mandate ends Feb. 28.

City officials last week said they’d follow the state’s lead in lifting a mask mandate by Feb. 28 — unless COVID-19 numbers worsened. Now, though citing "tremendous progress" against the Omicron surge, the mayor doesn’t want to set what she called an "artificial date."

CHICAGO— El pasado mes de marzo, cuando Armani Nightengale esperó en el coche para vacunarse contra el COVID-19 en United Center en Chicago, su esposo estaba más nervioso que ella.

CHICAGO — When Armani Nightengale waited in the car last March to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at Chicago's United Center, her husband was more nervous than she was.