Chicago poised to open new COVID-19 vaccination sites, but Mayor Lori Lightfoot says city needs more doses
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Chicago will have six mass COVID-19 vaccinations sites up and running by next week, increasing the city’s capacity to give up to 25,000 shots per week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday.
But the mayor again said the city isn’t receiving enough vaccines from the federal government, noting that it would take a year and a half to vaccinate the entire city at the current pace of distribution.
“That is completely, totally unacceptable,” Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot also noted the city’s receiving fewer doses now than when the vaccines first became available, calling it “clearly the opposite direction of where we need to be going.”
Still, the city will have mass vaccination sites at Malcolm X College, Arturo Velasquez Institute, Richard J. Daley College, Olive-Harvey College, Kennedy-King College and Harry S. Truman College by the end of next week, Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot’s announcement about mass distribution sites came as the city and state move toward the next phase of vaccines, which will allow a broader group of people to be vaccinated. The city is currently focused on vaccinating front-line health care workers in the first phase of the vaccine distribution.
Public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady on Wednesday said hospitals might be allowed to start reaching out themselves next week to at-risk patients age 65 and older.
Phase 1A has been focused on health care personnel and long-term care facilities residents. Phase 1B will expand to allow certain non-health care frontline essential workers, including teachers, to be vaccinated.
Lightfoot also said she wants to reopen city bars and restaurants as soon as possible and will talk with Gov. J.B. Pritzker about the issue. The mayor initially criticized Pritzker in October when he announced that he would be closing indoor service at bars and restaurants due to a spike in coronavirus cases but later dropped her objection.
In recent months, Lightfoot has attempted to position herself as a friend to bars and restaurants though she has also faced criticism for the city’s anti-coronavirus measures, including stricter rules on liquor sales which she’s since rescinded.
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