Chicago health officials say the city could enter the next phase of vaccine launches later this month, but who will be eligible?
The city has so far opted not to enter the 1B Plus phase of vaccinations alongside the state, which would open doses to residents with certain underlying health conditions.
Although no announcement has been made about eligibility to date, Phase 1C is likely to extend eligibility for the vaccine to other non-eligible essential workers, as well as to Chicago residents over the age of 16. with underlying medical conditions.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Phase 1C includes:
- People aged 65 to 74 because they have a high risk of hospitalization, disease, and death from COVID-19. People aged 65 to 74 who are also residents of long-term care centers should be offered vaccination in phase 1a.
- People aged 16 to 64 with underlying medical conditions which increase the risk of serious life-threatening complications of COVID-19.
- Other essential workers, such as people working in transport and logistics, food service, construction and housing finance, information technology, communications, energy, law, media, public safety and public health.
The CDC notes, however, that phase 1B and phase 1C may overlap in some cases, such as underlying medical conditions.
Chicago continues under Phase 1B, which includes essential front-line workers and residents age 65 and older, as well as health care workers and long-term care facility personnel and residents who were eligible under Phase 1A. of the deployment of the city.
Although the city chose not to expand into Phase 1B Plus, Chicago Department of Public Health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said that if Chicago received “much more vaccine” in March, it is possible that officials may begin vaccinating those with underlying conditions before entering Phase 1C.
There are already many eligible residents in phase 1B Plus of the state implementation who can be vaccinated at the federally-administered United Center mass vaccination site.
Chicago health officials previously announced that the city had set an estimated start date for the next phase, Phase 1C, which would begin on March 29th.
Arwady said the city could start these vaccinations later if the city saw an increase in available doses, but noted that the city is on track to enter phase 1C in late March.
“We will make adjustments to this [date] as always, as we see vaccine doses come in, “Arwady said.” But honestly, the way [vaccines have] My entry is about how I expected them to come in. March will look much better than the vaccine-related February. And I think April will look much better than March. ”
Arwady has said Phase 1C would likely begin on March 29 and Phase 2, which includes all residents over the age of 16, could begin on May 31.
“It may be sooner than expected, but that timeline we set still seems pretty consistent with our numbers,” Arwady said. “If you remember, we really said that at the end of March, March 29, was the place where we were guessing that we might be at a point so we could move towards 1C, and at the end of May, that’s when we might be able to move before Phase 2 and I haven’t seen anything that really suggests important differences. ”
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