If any of the 100,000 appointments now available for seniors at the United Center mass vaccination site remain unclaimed by Sunday afternoon, they are then expected to open up to other eligible Illinois residents, officials said.
The appointments will be reserved for residents 65 years of age and older until 4 p.m. Sunday, according to the city. After that time, if some appointments are still available, they would then open up to an additional group, city health officials said.
"Appointments will stay open only for seniors, people 65 and plus, from Thursday at 8:30 a.m. all the way through Sunday at 4 p.m. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday is the time that if you are over the age of 65, you know someone over the age of 65, please help them get an appointment," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said this week. "Then, once we get to Sunday, if we don't see all of the appointments taken by people over 65, starting 4 p.m. on Sunday is when we would then open up to people with underlying conditions."
Of the more than 100,000 appointments that were made available at the United Center mass vaccination site on Thursday, just over 27,000 had been claimed by Thursday evening, health officials said.
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The United Center site will begin to administer vaccine shots on March 9, then will fully open on March 10. The site will operate seven days a week for eight weeks with help from the federal government, according to city officials.
To register for doses of the vaccine, Chicago-area residents are encouraged to visit the Zocdoc website, or to call the multi-lingual vaccination hotline at (312) 746-4835. That hotline is available between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sundays.
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City officials do caution those using the hotline to anticipate long wait times, and say that the city’s website is a more reliable method to obtain a vaccination appointment.
