A total of 110,000 appointments will be provided at the United Center’s mass vaccination site. The first appointments will open Thursday at 8:30 a.m. for seniors. After the senior registration period, anyone eligible for a vaccine as part of the Phase 1B + group can begin scheduling appointments on Sunday, March 7 at 4 p.m.
To register for an appointment at the United Center, visit www.zocdoc.com/vaccine or call the Multilingual Hotline at (312) 746-4835 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Come at 8:30 a.m., the Zocdoc online platform is expected to be on screens of tens of thousands across the state.
“I think it’s a fairer system to put all availability in one place, rather than having hidden pockets where you need to work the system or work your connections,” said Oliver Kharraz, founder and CEO of Zocdoc.
Kharraz said the 110,000 vaccine appointments will be available in the morning, instead of plotting them daily.
Expect demand to reach at least 300 bookings per minute. That’s 18,000 per hour, at least initially.
“I think there’s a good chance all 110,000 will go,” Kharraz said. “I think there’s still a lot more demand for vaccine than supply.”
ABC 7 has learned that a portion of those appointments (up to 19%) will be dedicated to the call center. But some want the system to do more to target communities of color.
“A weighted lottery system,” suggested Dr. Marina Del Rios of the Vaccine Corp Partnership. “Or, at the very least, have a list of priority people. If you’re in those particular zip codes and in those particular communities, you’ll get the first comments.”
MIRAR | The Des Plaines mass vaccination site will open on 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, of the Northwest suburbs. It opens on Thursday and officials expect vaccinations to begin on Friday or Saturday for Phase 1B people.
Appointments for the Des Plaines Mass Vaccination Site can be made starting Thursday at 1 p.m. at vaccine.cookcountyil.gov or by phone at (833) 308-1988. The site will be open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle joined other public officials as she toured this new location on 1155 East Oakton Street in Des Plaines on Wednesday.
The site backed by the National Guard will be the first in Cook County to use the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The county expects 18,000 doses of J&J from the federal government to arrive Thursday. The goal is to vaccinate up to 3,500 people a 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. “This is an advantage that will allow us to make sure we can see even more people through places like today.”
“We will continue to ask for patience in this vaccination process. As we know, the supply of vaccines has been limited and although it is improving, we still cannot meet the demand,” Preckwinkle said.
This Des Plaines site is the fourth largest-scale vaccination center in suburban Cook County, joining facilities in Tinley Park, River Grove and South Holland. This is in addition to sites supported by the National Guard at various health centers in Cook County.
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