Cook County deploys mobile vaccine teams
Details of United Center sign-ups for suburban residents to come next week
Cook County officials launched a new mobile vaccination program Thursday afternoon and said details for how suburban residents of high-need communities can sign up for the United Center mass vaccination site will be released next week.
The pilot program by the Cook County Health and Hospitals System and the Cook County Department of Public Health debuted by inoculating a hundred residents, caregivers and employees at the Garden House of Maywood, a Housing and Urban Development-subsidized senior home, with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Over the next weeks, nurses will head to other sites that have partnered with the county and serve suburban residents in phase 1b, which includes people 65 or older, front-line essential workers and those in congregate living settings.
“I’m sure that you’re missing visits from friends and family, sons and daughters, grandchildren,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said at a news conference. “I know that I am. But we have reason to believe, now, that the worst of the virus is behind us, that we will soon be able to hug our grandchildren and visit our friends.”
rban phase 1b residents hoping to secure an appointment at Chicago’s United Center mass vaccination site that launched Tuesday, officials will announce details next week, Cook County Health CEO Israel Rocha Jr. said. There will be about 30 “communities” that ranked highest for vaccination need that will be eligible for that batch of sign-ups, he said. That list “is still being developed and will be available in the coming days,” CCDPH spokesman Don Bolger later wrote in a statement.
It’s a similar method the Chicago Department of Public Health used when it reserved United Center slots for five South and West ZIP codes. Cook County officials are determining the 30 communities based on their COVID-19 deaths and infections, percentage of residents vaccinated and socioeconomic factors.
“We are required by FEMA and our partners to look at certain requirements as we’re giving out vaccine,” Rocha said. “There was public availability for everyone in the state. When that closed on Sunday, we were asked to look at our distribution methodology. Our methodology will be announced next week.”
He added there will be “some opportunity” for United Center sign-ups beyond those 30 high-need communities as well.
Officials did not say how many doses were allocated for the mobile vaccination program, but organizations serving vulnerable populations will also be prioritized by the community COVID19 vulnerability index, Rocha said. Interested groups can sign up here.
“We’re looking to bring COVID-19 vaccine into the areas where people live that have been most impacted by COVID-19,” Rocha said. “We need to make sure that everyone has access to the vaccine, and that includes bringing them directly where they live.”