A U.S. military team is expected to arrive on Friday to support the work being done with a new tent being erected for the planned vaccinations.
To register for an appointment at the United Center, visit www.zocdoc.com/vaccine or call the multilingual hotline (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.
On Thursday, thousands of people, including Nancy Lilley of Plainfield, were frustrated when the appointments opened at 8:30 p.m.
“As soon as I get to the point where I can pick an appointment, it would turn around again and just keep me in a loop,” Lilley said.
City officials say that despite some initial problems with the ZocDoc dating site and problems with the overflow call option, nearly 28,000 seniors had registered by phone and online by mid-afternoon.
The site offers 110,000 spaces for appointments, but seniors will continue to have exclusive access to them until 4 p.m. on Sunday.
An organization trying to help immigrants and undocumented people register online also said the system was frustrating. The alternative, calling the phone line, was even worse.
“We were waiting for so long, you know, 20, 30, 40 minutes of waiting trying to catch someone,” Sarah Walker of Right 2 Family Vaccine Campaign said. And in the end, they never got to the hotline.
Dr. Arwady said the system is equipped to handle about 600 calls at any one time, so the amount of demand will affect how easy or difficult it is to pass.
“But keep calling,” he said. “There are appointments and then we’ll work to get people involved.”
City officials say initial drive-thru appointments were booked Thursday, but walking appointments are still available.
The United Center site will be the largest in the state. Next Tuesday will have a smooth opening.
Another mass vaccination site opens on Friday in Des Plaines.
Appointments for the 18,000 seats were booked within hours on Thursday. This place is for Cook County residents only.
It will be the first large-scale location in the state to administer the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which is a single-dose vaccine.
Appointments for the Des Plaines Mass Vaccination Site can be made 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.
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