Metro East

The license lottery comes more than a year after the state was supposed to award new licenses.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he is closely watching the southwestern Illinois counties that border Missouri, which have the highest growth of new COVID-19 infections in the country.

The base has many strong connections with the Metro East. Its ties with the region’s medical community are lesser known.

An event held on the banks of the Mississippi River was a symbolic step for communities in both Missouri and Illinois that routinely face similar air quality issues.

Vaccinations in St. Clair and Madison counties remained just above 40%, while case positivity rates tripled in the past month.

The Madison County Board of Health has an advisory committee of health professionals, but its members were not consulted for input on the masking resolution.

Residents say no changes have been made in the year since a previous lawsuit was filed.

Schools have a lot more leeway in creating coronavirus safety mitigations this year and parents are voicing their views on mask requirements.

The measure passed with only Democratic support before the release of full census data later this year.

Nearly all new COVID-19 hospital patients in the region are unvaccinated and the number of hospitalized young people, including those under 25, is growing.