Chicago Anchor Tanja Babich Has Been Missing from Her Show, but Where Is She?

Since joining ABC 7 in Chicago in 2014, Tanja Babich has become a staple of local news for Chicago viewers. In recent days, though, Tanja has been absent from her normal post as the anchor for the network's morning news program, News in the Morning, which airs from 4:30 am to 7:00 am and then again from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm.

Tanja's absence from her normal post led some to wonder whether she had left ABC 7 altogether. Thankfully for her fans, Tanja is still with the network, but she's had to take some time off after testing positive for COVID-19. In a recent Instagram posts, she updated fans on her condition, letting them know that she hopes to be back on the air as soon as she can.

"I’m alive! I appreciate those of you who have reached out to ask where I’ve been! I’m on the mend from COVID… no longer contagious, but getting treatment for an asthma flare-up and hope to be back on the air soon," she wrote in the caption to the post.

In the lengthy video, Tanja provided more details on her experience with the disease, and she also discussed the recent shooting in a Chicago suburb that has traumatized the community.

"In America today, it's just a matter of time before something like this hits too close for comfort," she said. She also shared condolences with those who had died in the shooting, and discussed how, even though Chicago was a big city, it could also feel like a small community

After discussing the shooting, Tanja discussed her absence, saying that she and her husband had traveled to Spain in the middle of June to celebrate her 40th birthday. It was her first trip overseas since the pandemic, and she said that it was a wonderful trip.

"Within 24 to 48 hours of getting home, both my husband and I tested positive for COVID, and it sucked," she explained.

"We were mostly okay," she clarified, adding that they are both double vaccinated and boosted. She said that they hoped they would only experience mild cold symptoms, but they wound up with a more severe illness than that.

"I was starting to get better, and then I started to get worse," Tanja explained. She explained that she has a history of asthma which the COVID triggered and inflamed.

She said that she's now on medication to treat her cough so that she doesn't wind up coughing on the air, and that she hopes to be back anchoring her morning show very soon, adding that all of her kids have avoided getting sick.

Tanja definitely had a scary experience with COVID, but it sounds like she is mostly out of the woods and on her way to a full recovery. For fans of her anchoring skills, her return to the morning broadcast can't come soon enough.