Investigations

As states ramp up their contact tracing efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, so too are scammers who are preying on consumers’ fears, experts said. “Scammers love pandemics. They are having a field day,” said Steve Bernas, President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau, serving Chicago and Northern Illinois. Bernas said 90 percent of com...

A group of federal workers is speaking out about plans for them to return to the office, saying that they are being targeted because of the agency that they work for. NBC 5 Investigates’ Phil Rogers has the story.

The vibrancy of Chicago’s famed Loop, dotted with restaurants, bars, shops and entertainment, hinges on the return of tourists and employees whose companies occupy downtown office buildings. The coronavirus has left once bustling streets nearly empty. On a warm spring Friday around mid-day, only essential employees could be seen on sidewalks. A lon...

For weeks now, Los Angeles County has been posting locations online which have seen five cases or more of coronavirus — everything from a Domino’s Pizza with four cases, to a Ralph’s grocery with 22 and a sheriff’s station where 13 people have tested positive for the virus. Wyandotte County in Kansas, which includes Kansas C...

While most stay home to stay safe, doctors are scared for children whose homes are not havens.

All four of Illinois’ health regions are trending in the right direction as the state inches closer to its next phase of reopening, data shows. As of Tuesday, 11 days remained in the statewide stay-at-home order, but regions can begin entering phase three of reopening in as early as 10 days – if they meet the required metrics. Illinois&...

Support for Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order varies wildly between towns and counties, and tonight NBC 5 Investigates is taking a look at what the numbers are telling us about which areas are set to reopen more quickly than others. Phil Rogers has more.

At noon on Friday, Bill Glembocki said his Brat Stop restaurant in Kenosha was buzzing with activity, preparing to do something he had not been able to do for weeks: open for business. “I want everybody to be safe,” Glembocki told NBC 5. “We don’t want anybody to get sick here. If you are sick, please don’t come and......

With less than six months to go until the general election and with concerns over social distancing at polling places, some Illinois leaders are pushing to significantly expand the use of vote-by-mail ballots. State Sen. Julie Morrison, a Democrat from Lake Forest, plans to introduce a bill that would allow the state to mail a ballot to every regis...

The Illinois Department of Public Health has listed a total of 11,469 coronavirus cases, and 1,553 deaths, in long-term care facilities across the state. But NBC 5 Investigates has tallied a total of 1,719 deaths, including 166 more deaths at nursing homes that have so far gone unrecorded by the state. Most — but not all — of the unrepo...

Authorities in Illinois say an Iowa man charged in 1990s serial killings “does not appear to have been involved” in the unsolved 1992 slaying of a college student

Of the 351 long-term care facilities currently identified by the Illinois Department of Public Health as having a coronavirus outbreak, 60 percent were cited for infection control violations, the latest federal data shows. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services updated the Nursing Home Compare tool last week for the first quarter of 2020, w...

It took a global pandemic to stop the one thing we all can’t stand: robocalls. Americans received 2.9 billion robocalls in the month of April, according to data collected by YouMail, a robocall blocking company. That’s about half the 5.6 billion automated calls that rang phones in October 2019. “Call centers around the globe have either shut down o...

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to decimate Chicago’s transportation industries.  Business shutdowns and Illinois’ stay-at-home orders have resulted in a massive shrinkage in the need for anyone to actually transport themselves to a downtown workplace.  Not only have thousands been shut out of their jobs, but many others are now wor...

Deaths at long-term care facilities now account for 44 percent, up from just over a third last week, of all coronavirus fatalities in the state, according to data released by the Illinois Department of Public Health and analyzed by NBC 5 Investigates. As of Friday evening, IDPH reported 1,082 deaths and 7,542 cases in long-term care facilities. Tha...

Public health experts say one crucial key in lifting stay-at-home orders and re-opening the economy is to identify all coronavirus cases and to trace contacts of each identified case. The practice is called contact tracing, and it is tedious work. “It is a very time-consuming, time-intensive process,” said Palak Panchal, the lead epidemiologist in ...