State health officials on Thursday reported 1,309 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized throughout Illinois.

That’s the fewest hospitalized with the respiratory disease since early August, Illinois Department of Public Health figures show.

Illinois has one of the highest concentrations of housing markets exposed to the impact of the pandemic in the third quarter, and two of them are in the Metro East according to a new report by ATTOM, a property database.

The report found Illinois, New Jersey, and Delaware had 26 of the 50 counties most exposed to the potential housing-related impacts of the pandemic.

New data obtained by the ABC7 I-Team shows how far behind Illinois is in meeting its COVID vaccine reporting mandate for thousands of state government employees.

Prisons, juvenile facilities and veterans homes are among the residential facilities operated by Illinois government that are in a state of uncertainty based on employee vaccination records submitted so far.

A federal judge on Thursday approved a settlement which now requires the state of Illinois to pay interest on unclaimed money it holds to the residents who rightfully own and claim it.

Judge Charles Kocoras approved the settlement agreement reached between the state of Illinois and attorneys for the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit five years earlier to compel the state to begin paying interest on the unclaimed property in the state’s possession.

The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled Cook County’s taxes on guns and ammunition violate the state constitution.

In a decision Thursday, the court says the taxes “directly burden a law-abiding citizen’s” second amendment right to buy the items for self-defense.