Of the more than 100,000 appointments that were made available at the United Center mass vaccination site on Thursday, more than 27,000 have already been snapped up, health officials announced Thursday evening.
According to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s press office, 27,819 appointments have already been booked for senior citizens to receive their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
The remaining appointments will be reserved for residents 65 years of age and older until 4 p.m. Sunday, according to the city.
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.
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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.
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.
