As the state’s supply of vaccines increases, federal, state and local officials are expected to announce on Friday that the United Center’s mass vaccination site will open on March 10, several sources told ABC 7.
With the Bulls and Blackhawks still playing at the United Center, the arena itself will not be used. Instead, the car parks will be used for driving and travel vaccinations.
FEMA and the U.S. Department of Defense will take the lead in managing the site, with a special focus on vaccinating minority populations that have been relatively slow in getting doses.
5,000 to 7,000 shots could be fired daily, which is significant considering the city of Chicago currently receives about 8,300 doses a day.
“What you’re looking for here is essentially to increase the city’s vaccination rate by about 50 to 70 percent, which is very, very significant,” said Professor Hani Mahmassani, director of Northwestern University. Transport center.
However, Mahmassani said that if the goal is to reach more people in more areas of the city, a large downtown location may not be the best use of resources.
“Instead of having a facility that vaccinates 7,000 people, I think it would be more effective to have seven facilities that vaccinate 1,000 people every day,” Mahmassani said.
Does the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine change the game?
Crews cleared the snow parking lot Thursday night in preparation for the arrival of heavy equipment.
“They’re ready and they’re ready to do whatever it takes to get people in and out and get their vaccines,” 27th Ward Ald said. Walter Burnett said. “You have very good transportation with the highway, the trains. You have two train systems, the green line and the blue line, buses. You also have a community used to having traffic there.”
Governor JB Pritzker’s office said in a statement on Thursday: “Governor Pritzker believes the Biden Administration’s efforts to launch high-capacity vaccination sites across the country are essential to equity and values the strong collaboration with the president and his team.Our partners in Cook County and the city of Chicago are also critical to our collective success, especially as we work together to ensure we are ready to use the supply. growing vaccines in the most equitable manner possible. “
More details are expected to be posted on the United Center site on Friday.
The United Center site is one of several planned federal-run mass vaccination sites nationwide. There are already others in California, New York and Texas.
Earlier this month, the Chicago public health commissioner said the city had completed planning and made tours of the United Center, as well as Wrigley Field and McCormick Place. But it is not yet known if other large spaces will be used in Chicago.
More details about the site are expected, including how people can schedule appointments, when the formal announcement is made Friday morning.
What protection does the COVID-19 vaccine offer? How vaccinated people should approach to see others
Illinois announced that more than 130,000 doses of vaccine were administered Wednesday, the largest one-day increase on record to date and a 36% increase from the previous record of 95,375 on Feb. 12.
The state reported that 109,220 doses were delivered to suppliers in Illinois on Wednesday. Despite dropping from a record 276,440 on Tuesday, it is still higher than the state has received in recent days.
However, several county health departments say it could be weeks before they could extend eligibility for the vaccine to people under 65 with underlying conditions, despite state guarantees that supply will soon substantially increase.
SEE: Illinois expands eligibility for 1B vaccine, but doses remain low
A long line stretched out of West Leyden High School in Northlake, where 2,000 people received the first vaccine. There are 500 more on the waiting list. Jemma Cabral, 41, was one of the lucky ones. He got his at 9:15 in the morning
“I’m twice a cancer survivor,” Cabral said. “I had a stem cell transplant, so I mean, even though years ago, I still got sick easily. So it was important for me to get vaccinated.”
By Illinois standards, Cabral is part of Phase 1B plus, which now includes anyone over the age of 16 who has a pre-existing condition. Thursday was the first day people like her could be vaccinated. Except that vaccines are still so scarce, that not even a public health department in the area expands their eligibility.
“It’s not just Chicago, it’s Cook, DuPage and Will and Evanston,” said Dr. Allison Arwady of the Chicago Department of Public Health. “We’re not at a point where we can move forward. If we open it up, we’d make people happy for five minutes and then we’d be frustrated because they couldn’t actually get appointments.”
Cabral got his appointment because Albertson’s runs the West Leyden Clinic. Participating grocery stores and pharmacies receive the vaccines directly from the federal government and can choose to assign them to anyone who enforces state regulations.
“I was a little worried when I went to put the date of birth waiting for him to say he wasn’t eligible. But not really, it was pretty smooth and easy to fill out,” Cabral said.
Governor JB Pritzker is encouraging public health departments to expand the requirements as soon as possible, saying by mid-March the state will receive 100,000 doses a day. That’s almost double, like now.
In Chicago, where public health officials say nearly half a million doses are still missing to cover phases 1A and 1B, this expansion is not expected to occur until at least the end of March.
SEE: Can your employer fire you for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine?
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,884 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 32 deaths on Thursday.
IDPH reported a total of 1,181,226 cases of COVID-19, including 20,406 deaths.
As of Wednesday night, 1,463 patients in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of these, 334 patients were in the ICU and 168 patients with COVID-19 with ventilators.
RELATED: Coronavirus Testing in Illinois: Where to Test COVID-19 in Illinois, Chicago Area
In the last 24 hours, laboratories have reported testing 91,292 specimens for a total of 17,895,829 since the pandemic began.
The statewide seven-day preliminary positivity test from Feb. 18-24 is 2.7%.
RELATED: Illinois COVID Vaccine Map Shows Number of Vaccinated Residents by County
A total of 2,693,345 doses of vaccine have been delivered to Illinois providers, including Chicago, with an additional 445,200 doses allocated to federal government partners for long-term care facilities, making the number total deliveries in Illinois is 3,138,545.
The IDPH said vaccine distribution data are reported in real time and vaccine administrations are delayed by up to 72 hours.
IDPH reports that a total of 2,440,950 vaccine doses have been administered, including 295,909 in long-term facilities. The rotating average of seven days of administered vaccines is 66,274.
The deaths reported on Wednesday include:
-Adams County: 1 woman aged 80 years
-Christian County: 1 woman aged 80 years
Cook County: 1 20-year-old man, 1 50-year-old man, 2 60-year-old men, 4 70-year-old men, 2 80-year-old women
-DeKalb County: 1 man aged 60 years
-DuPage County: 1 man from the 80’s
-C Jersey County: 1 man from the 70s
-Kane County: 1 60-year-old man, 1 80-year-old man
-Kankakee County: 1 man from the 80’s
-Lake County: 1 man from the 90’s
-Logan County: 1 woman aged 80 years
-Madison County: 1 30-year-old woman, 1 80-year-old man
-Monroe County: 2 women from the 80s
-Pike County: 1 man from the 80’s
-Randolph County: 1 woman aged 50 years
-Rock Island County: 1 woman 90
-Whiteide County: 1 man from the 80’s
-County Will: 1 male 60 years, 1 male 90 years
-Winnebago County: 1 man of 70 years, 1 man of 80 years
Copyright © 2021 WLS-TV. All rights reserved.