Daywatch: Few Illinois residents have received updated COVID-19 boosters

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About 10.5% of people in Illinois eligible for new, updated COVID-19 boosters have received them in the month since they became available.

For some doctors, this percentage is worrisome — particularly given fears of a winter surge.

“I think this is not top of mind for people anymore, but possibly when the fall and winter surge happens people will feel more urgency,” said Dr. Mercedes Carnethon, a professor and vice chair of preventative medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The updated boosters started going into arms in Illinois during the second week of September. The shots, made by Pfizer and Moderna, are called bivalent boosters because they’re designed to protect against COVID-19 broadly as well as against the omicron variants that are now dominant in the U.S.

Those eligible for boosters include individuals ages 12 and older who completed their original vaccine series, as long as it’s been at least two months since their last dose or booster shot.

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s extraordinary call last month that two fellow Democrats resign from the Illinois Senate — one for alleged bribery and the other over accusations he acted inappropriately toward women — underscores two major questions that for years have plagued Springfield.

First, will corruption in Illinois politics ever reach an end point? And second, will the culture in the state’s capital that five years ago triggered a series of #MeToo scandals ever be fully addressed?

Election officials in a small Illinois county southwest of Peoria printed the wrong name of the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate on several hundred ballots, forcing the officials Wednesday to keep the ballots separate from all others being cast in the Nov. 8 general election.

The error in Schuyler County could lead to several dozen votes in the Senate race being disregarded, an Illinois State Board of Elections spokesperson said. Republican U.S. Senate nominee Kathy Salvi labeled the misprint a “problem of election integrity and transparency,” but Schuyler County Clerk Mindy Garrett said there was no ill intent.

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Charges have been filed against a 36-year-old woman in connection with the death of her landlord whose remains were found in a freezer on the Far North Side, Chicago police said. Sandra Kolalou was charged with murder, according to Brendan Deenihan, chief of detectives, during a Wednesday evening news conference. Kolalou was also charged with concealment of a homicide.

The body of Frances Walker was found Monday in a residence in the 5900 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office and Chicago police. A Wednesday autopsy on Walker, 69, was inconclusive and pending further studies, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Kroger, the largest traditional grocery chain in the nation, has bid to buy Albertsons, creating a supermarket behemoth with nearly 5,000 stores and more than $200 billion in annual revenue.

The potential supermarket megamerger is likely to draw regulatory scrutiny in markets such as Chicago, where rival chains Jewel and Mariano’s could end up in the same corporate basket. Cincinnati-based Kroger has 2,750 supermarkets in 35 states, including more than 40 Chicago-area Mariano’s stores. Albertsons, which is based in Boise, Idaho, has more than 2,200 supermarkets in 34 states, including 188 Jewel stores in the Chicago area.

10 thoughts after the Chicago Bears had four shots from the 5-yard line and closer in the final minute but couldn’t convert in a 12-7 loss to an embattled Washington Commanders team on Thursday night at Soldier Field.

If you want to visit one of the best bars in the world, look no further than Chicago’s West Loop. Kumiko, a Japanese American bar helmed by one of Chicago’s premier bar directors, landed a spot on The World’s 50 Best Bars list last week.

Since 2009, the annual list has highlighted the best of the international drinks industry, voted by 650 drink experts around the world. They granted Kumiko the No. 25 spot, recognizing the establishment as the “epitome of elegance.”