A total of 110,000 appointments will be made for the United Center’s mass vaccination site. The first appointments will open for seniors on Thursday at 8:30 am. After the senior enrollment period, anyone eligible for a vaccine as part of the Phase 1B + group can schedule appointments on Sunday, March 7 at 4:00 PM.
To register for an appointment at the United Center, please visit www.zocdoc.com/vaccine or call the multilingual hotline (312) 746-4835 Monday through Saturday 8:00 am to 8:00 pm and Sunday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.
Come 8:30 am, the Zocdoc online platform is expected to hit the screens of tens of thousands in the state.
“I think it’s a fairer system to put all availability in one place, instead of having hidden boxes where you have to use the system or your connections need to work,” said Oliver Kharraz, founder and CEO of Zocdoc.
Kharraz said all 110,000 vaccination appointments will be available in the morning, rather than being handed out per day.
He expects demand to be at least 300 bookings per minute. That is initially 18,000 per hour.
“I think there is a good chance that all 110,000 will go,” said Kharraz. “I think there is still a lot more demand for the vaccine than there is supply.”
ABC 7 has been informed that some of those appointments – as much as 19% – will be assigned to the call center. But some would like the system to do more to target communities of color.
“A weighted lottery system,” stated Dr. Marina Del Rios, Vaccine Corp Partnership. ‘Or else at least you have a list of priority people. If you are in these specific zip codes and in these specific communities, you will get the first dibs. ‘
VIEW | Des Plaines mass vaccination site opens Thursday
Located in a former K-Mart store, the new mass vaccination site in Des Plaines is one of the largest, if not the largest, in the northwestern suburbs. It opens Thursday, and officials hope to begin vaccinations Friday or Saturday for the people in Phase 1B.
Appointments for the Des Plaines mass vaccination site can be made starting Thursday at 1pm at vaccine.cookcountyil.gov or by phone at (833) 308-1988. The site is open Monday through Friday from 7am to 7pm
The chairman of the Cook County Board, Toni Preckwinkle, was joined by other government officials on Wednesday as she toured this new venue at 1155 East Oakton Street in Des Plaines.
The National Guard-supported site will be the first in Cook County to use the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The province expects 18,000 J&J doses from the federal government on Thursday. The goal is to vaccinate up to 3,500 people per day.
“Because Johnson & Johnson is a single-dose vaccine, patients don’t have to worry about scheduling a second appointment,” said Israel Rocha, Jr., CEO of Cook County Health. “That’s an advantage we can afford to make sure we can see even more individuals through sites like today.”
“We will continue to insist on patience in this vaccination process. As we know, the supply of vaccines is limited, and while it is improving, we still cannot meet demand,” said Preckwinkle.
This Des Plaines location is the fourth large-scale vaccination center in the suburbs of Cook County, along with facilities in Tinley Park, River Grove and South Holland. That’s in addition to National Guard-supported sites in several Cook County health centers.
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