Walgreens targets churches for vaccine

Walgreens will give COVID-19 vaccinations to more than 10,000 members of houses of worship across the city of Chicago this month, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Saturday.

More than 70 religious places will partner with Walgreens clinics for the next three weeks as part of a new “COVID-19 Vaccine Faith Initiative” in Chicago, Lightfoot said during a news conference at JLM Abundant Life Center on the city’s Near West Side. She touted the new vaccination partnership as a means to cover moderateto high-risk residents who have not participated in previous equity campaigns from the city.

“Going into the faith community, obviously, has to be part of our strategy,” Lightfoot said. “You can’t talk about the Black community and not talk about the church, right?”

Saturday’s announcement was the kickoff of a nationwide campaign by Walgreens to host similar partnerships in more than 100 cities in the U.S., CEO Rosalind Brewer said. Also involved in the partnership is Uber, which will schedule rides through the faith organizations to get residents to their appointments.

“We are replicating this across the country,” Brewer said. “Chicago means a ton to us, but there are other communities that look just like this.”

The initiative comes as the share of first doses given to white Chicagoans has risen while that proportion among Black and Latino residents have decreased since the end of February. Population wise, 1 in 5 Black Chicagoans has gotten a first dose while that number is 1 in 4 for Latino residents and 1 in 3 for white Chicagoans.