There has been a lot of discussion about influenza killing more people than coronavirus. Can you please weigh in on that? And have all the preventive precautions for coronavirus greatly reduced the number of influenza cases?

All employees will have their temperature taken when they report to work, and anyone with a temperature of 100 degrees or higher will be asked to stay home.

Sales rep Michael Heldebrandt brings the beers people have ordered to them in a red BMW, which brewery and bar owner Chris Knight originally thought would be what grabbed attention. But that's 'not nearly as eye-catching as a large T-rex coming out of it,' he said.

In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Susan Zola is seeing a high level of cooperation between all the stakeholders.

Of the 38 total cases reported in Champaign County, slightly more than half of the people have been 50 years old or younger.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who is joined by the sheriff’s association, denounced J.B. Pritzker’s decision to stop accepting inmates who have been sentenced to prison into state prisons as a selfish display that makes life easier for the state but harder for local sheriffs.

To show the impact of coronavirus on our community, The News-Gazette's Anthony Zilis took his drone to several spots in Champaign and Urbana.

The Champaign community college put a call center in place with seven people working at any given time. There are also sub-call centers, for financial aid, tech support, libraries, etc.

The bank announced a series of steps it was taking to help customers as part of its financial-relief program.

Is it really safe to eat delivered food from a restaurant? I know you are supposed to throw away the containers, the bags, but what about the food prepared by someone else?

In Part 4 of Editor Jeff D’Alessio’s series of stories from former Illini around the world, the 1994 journalism grad who is a former Tokyo correspondent for Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal describes life during a pandemic in Japan, a country he’s called home for 20 years.

Carle already has some access to materials and the certified medical lab necessary to process tests. What was also needed was more lab staff and analyzers, two of which were recently provided by a University of Illinois research lab.

On the cover of the University of Illinois Alumni Association's spring edition of its magazine: Julie Pryde

When asked at his daily briefing in Chicago about the possibility of extending the statewide stay-at-home order beyond April 7, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he was evaluating the situation "every day."

By now, every corner of our community has been touched by the coronavirus pandemic. As he will until the crisis subsides, Anthony Zilis spent a second week telling 10 stories of those impacted.

He's dominating the news, making daily announcements of his most recent decisions regarding the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Calm, businesslike, well-spoken, the governor has acquitted himself nicely in the spotlight.

How has the crisis affected the University of Illinois-owned airport in Savoy?

Niemann Foods added the Plexiglass panels at the checkout lanes in its stores, including Harvest Market and the local County Markets, as did Schnucks.

“Many of us are working from home. My days consist of Microsoft Teams meetings and Google Hangouts meetings as well as collaborating with colleagues on the cloud."

'I want to send a message of: Be positive. Be well,' said Comfort Suites franchisee Effendi Fendi. 'We will get over it. The only thing that scares me is I don't know how long it will take.'

Administrator: “We practice our pandemic plans, we all know each other. We have lots of providers and the UI."

The wait is ongoing for area teams. Area players. Area coaches. Area parents. When will sports resume as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic? Good question. Until then, sports editor Matt Daniels spent the week telling the stories of those impacted by the pandemic in a variety of ways. 

To elevate the spirits of those tooling along Main Street in Villa Grove, several businesses have decorated windows with colorful hearts.

Nine of those were women.

It was hard for Boka Shoppe owner Donna Catlin to stop chuckling long enough to elaborate about Darlene Poague's request for a toilet-paper bouquet, but she said, 'I was glad to do it. ... It was nice of her, I thought. She was being very creative.'

Plenty of coronavirus info plus answers on I-57/I-74 interchange project, a  creative piece of art in downtown Urbana, wildlife in Champaign, 2020 Census concerns, a postwar housing development for University of Illinois faculty, handicapped parking concerns, restaurant taxes, bald eagles and our young pal, Marcus Jackson.

The jail captain said it's not a first, but the fact that no one was booked in for almost 21 hours between Thursday and Friday in extremely rare. Further, there was no one charged Friday with a new crime in Champaign County.

Of the 178 senators who responded, only 13 percent indicated they supported the resolution as a whole, and less than 20 percent said they could support ending the semester early.

The Illinois RapidVent, which can be plugged into the oxygen source available in most hospital rooms or an oxygen tank, was developed in less than a week, and tests have shown it performs equivalent to commercial devices, Carle and the UI said.

The Carle health system started Friday to process those tests locally, cutting the wait time for results from as long as 10 days to about 24 hours, according to Kayla Banks, Carle’s vice president of quality and infection prevention.

Urbana resident Wendy Edwards took care not to clean out the shelves at Walgreens, but she had a mission to get at least 42 travel-sized bottles of hand sanitizer.

By Monday, Carle expects to be able to handle 100 tests a day for local patients.

Tom's Mailbag: 'Beginning Friday, March 27, traffic exiting from the Orchard Street parking garage at Carle Foundation Hospital will be using the pay booths on Park Street on the north side of the garage nearest to The Forum.'

So many of the essential workers possibly being exposed to COVID-19 are young adults without health insurance. What exactly is the risk for younger adults, and what should their employers and the public be doing to help them stay well?

My CPAP machine literally helps me breathe easier as I sleep, but I wonder if I should keep using it if I develop symptoms of COVID-19. Any special do’s/don’ts for cleaning CPAP equipment at this time — or precautions for those with someone who uses a CPAP?

In the second installment of a new series, Editor Jeff D’Alessio asked the mid-’80s Illini basketball big man and 1992 Summer Olympian about life in lockdown 4,368 miles away.

Unique alternatives have popped up for hunts sponsored by the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce and Ogden Village Board.

Illinois’ 'flagship university system is here to help in any way possible, sharing its world-class resources to put this crisis behind us,' President Tim Killeen said in a statement.

URBANA — Like most other businesses, APL Engineered Materials Inc. ceased production and sent its employees home for two weeks following Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order Friday.

In both Champaign and Urbana, where firefighters also serve as emergency medical technicians, departments are limiting who assesses a patient because of the pandemic. That firefighter must use personal protective equipment like gloves, goggles and a mask.

“Despite an interpretation stating that golf courses could remain open during the Stay at Home Order, the state of Illinois is now prohibiting golf courses from opening."

In the coming weeks, in a spinoff of our ‘UI at 150 & Beyond’ project, Editor Jeff D’Alessio will catch up with University of Illinois grads in corners of the globe affected by the coronavirus.

How likely is it that there are false negatives or false positives, and what would cause that? And can you explain why it takes so long to get test results back?

The virus, it seems, is not only wreaking havoc on daily life in Illinois, but its economic impact is expected to wreck the state’s already pathetic financial standing.

State's Attorney Dana Rhoades took the action of filing against the county board last week, saying the Emergency Management Agency needs to be able to speak to the media and public, and also have the authority to buy supplies during the current pandemic.