Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what’s happening Wednesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

Walgreens has been canceling some appointments for the second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, leaving people scrambling to find the same brand of vaccine for their second dose as their first. The issue appears to be affecting people who made their first and second appointments at different Walgreens stores, even though they booked the appointments at the same time.

The news comes as Illinois public health officials again warned Tuesday that hospitalizations because of COVID-19 are on the rise, preventing the state from moving forward in its reopening plan.

Rising COVID-19 numbers led Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to warn via Twitter that “the pandemic is not over.” She specifically pointed to the Jefferson Park neighborhood’s seven-day rolling positivity rate of 8%, which the mayor said was “unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, Chicago will open two mass vaccination sites next week, one at a conference center next to Wrigley Field and the other at Chicago State University, Lightfoot’s office announced Tuesday. The sites will open Monday.

State officials Tuesday also reported 2,404 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 17 additional deaths. That brings the state’s totals since the pandemic began to 1,241,993 cases and 21,273 deaths.

There were 86,812 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered Monday and the seven-day rolling daily average in the state is 105,040 doses.

Illinois COVID-19 vaccine tracker: Here’s where the state stands

COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on key metrics in your area

Illinois coronavirus graphs: The latest data on deaths, confirmed cases, tests and more

COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

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Here’s what’s happening Wednesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area:

6 a.m.: Chicago’s first opening day in two years will see changes aplenty inside and outside Wrigley Field

Cubs season ticket holder Patrick McCarron moved to Wrigleyville two years ago so he’d have an easier time getting to games, only to see Wrigley Field closed to fans once the pandemic started.

That will finally change Thursday, when the gates part for opening day and enough spectators to fill up to 25% of the 41,000-seat ballpark get their first in-person glimpse of the Friendly Confines in 18 months. McCarron, a 41-year-old iPhone developer, will be one of them.

Yet while he’s excited as a fan, he’s also nervous as a resident. COVID-19 cases are rising and he already sees packs of young people walking around the surrounding streets without masks. What will the ballpark and neighborhood be like when the Old Style is flowing, the excitement is high and Kyle Hendricks is about to deliver the season’s first pitch?

“I’m curious how well-behaved other people are going to be, and I wonder how good the security will be to make sure people keep their distance,” McCarron said.

The Cubs’ opening day will be one of Chicago’s first mass events in more than a year, and everyone from beer vendors to CTA platform workers will have new ways of doing things. That’s true for the surrounding businesses as well, which are hoping for robust but manageable crowds as the season begins.

Read more here. —John Keilman and Abdel Jimenez

6 a.m.: Woman uses stimulus money to fly grandparents back to Chicago to get COVID-19 vaccine: ‘I just hoped I would see them again’

It was nearly two years ago that Elizabeth Oyarzun had last seen her grandparents. And every day for the past year, she prayed she would see them again.

After what seemed like an eternity, the two arrived at O’Hare International Airport from Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday night, she said.

Oyarzun, the couple’s oldest granddaughter, who they raised as their daughter, used the money from her most recent stimulus check to fly them to Chicago to get a COVID-19 vaccine. She feared they wouldn’t get it in time in Monterrey.

Her grandmother, Irma Rodriguez, 70, contracted COVID-19 in October, and though she survived, the fear that her grandfather, Jose Perez, 74, would eventually get the coronavirus haunted her, Oyarzun said.

“I wish my grandparents were eternal,” she said, and paused for a long time.

“But the reality is that they are not, so I will do my best to keep them safe and healthy for as long as possible,” she said.

Read more here. —Laura Rodríguez Presa

6 a.m.: Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine safe and effective in children as young as 12

Pfizer announced Wednesday that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and strongly protective in children as young as 12, a step toward possibly beginning shots in this age group before they head back to school in the fall.

Most COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out worldwide are for adults, who are at higher risk from the coronavirus. Pfizer’s vaccine is authorized for ages 16 and older. But vaccinating children of all ages will be critical to stopping the pandemic — and helping schools, at least the upper grades, start to look a little more normal after months of disruption.

In a study of 2,260 U.S. volunteers ages 12 to 15, preliminary data showed there were no cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated adolescents compared to 18 among those given dummy shots, Pfizer reported.

Read more here. —Associated Press

In case you missed it

Here are some recent stories related to COVID-19:

Walgreens cancels some appointments for second doses of COVID-19 vaccine, leaving people scrambling.

Rising COVID-19 numbers bring more warnings, as Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweets that “the pandemic is not over.”

Wrigley Field campus, Chicago State University to host COVID-19 mass vaccination sites.

Destination: Vaccination. Amid confusion, Chicagoans traveling to downstate Quincy, elsewhere to get early inoculation access.

Chicago Riverwalk businesses prepare to reopen, await safety guidelines from city.