A total of 110,000 appointments will be available and for seniors the first appointments will open on Thursday at 8.30 am.
“This is an appeal to seniors, their relatives or anyone else in the senior network and support system to sign up for these appointments before they are hired,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
To register for an appointment, please visit www.zocdoc.com/vaccine or call the multilingual hotline (312) 746-4835 Monday through Saturday from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm and Sundays from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.
“I am hopeful that there will be an allocation to slot machines by phone,” said Courtney Hedderman, AARP Illinois Associate State Director. “That will make a huge difference to people.”
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.
The United Center will open for a limited number of appointments on March 9 and fully open on March 10. The venue is open seven days a week from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.
Officials said that initially only vaccinations are offered, but there are plans to add a drive-through component. The city works together with aldermen and neighborhood groups to register people and meet their agreements.
One of the reasons we really wanted to keep that appointment time open through Sunday was that if the appointments aren’t all fulfilled by then, offering to really think about that weekend time when religious groups congregate and encourage them to think too on ways to help enroll their seniors, ”said Dr. Allison Arwady.
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On Friday, 222 US Army soldiers will arrive in Chicago to prepare for their mission to administer up to 6,000 doses per day. The UC will administer the Pfizer vaccine, so recipients must come back three weeks later for a second dose.
The city said the new single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be used this month to vaccinate airport and other transportation workers, as well as those in production and home-bound people.
“Our goal is to have these highest-risk individuals, in terms of hospitalizations and death, and those highest-risk settings vaccinated,” said Dr. Arwady.
Currently, there are still half a million seniors in Cook County who have not been vaccinated.
“To really rise above this terrible pandemic, we need to get our seniors vaccinated as quickly and as humanely as possible, without shortcuts,” said Mayor Lightfoot.
The mayor is encouraging those who are tech-savvy and have access to computers to sign up online and leave the phones for those who need to call for appointments.
Advocate Aurora Health confirmed it is working with the city on a potential mass vaccination site near Wrigley Field, but declined to share specific details.
While the United Center’s massive vaccination site is operated by the federal government, this site is said to be operated by Advocate.
STATEMENT OF ADVOCATED AURORA HEALTH:
As a community health leader, we are committed to doing everything we can to carry out the vaccination process as quickly, fairly and safely as possible.
We are proud to partner on a potential mass vaccination site in Wrigley Field, which could potentially be authorized by the City of Chicago. If the site is designated and City vaccine supplies become available, Advocate Aurora Health would provide clinical staff and technical infrastructure.
This location is being considered as a convenient option for those who do not own a car as it is easily accessible via the CTA. This is part of our ongoing focus on partnership to ensure that residents of disproportionately affected communities have access to the vaccine as soon as supplies become available.
We continue to believe that the vaccine is our best chance to end this pandemic and we continue to use our current, very limited supply for our most vulnerable patients over 65.
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