Cook County will release thousands of COVID vaccine appointments to all Illinois residents who qualify under the state's Phase 1B Plus guidelines on Friday.
Registration for 12,500 appointments will open to all eligible Illinois residents at 12 p.m. on the Cook County vaccine website. Appointments can also be made by calling the county's hotline at (833) 308-1988 on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
For a look at the latest updates on vaccinations across Illinois, click here.
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The Cook County Department of Public Health announced Wednesday that it will move to Phase 1B Plus, where much of the rest of state currently is, beginning on Monday. That means the county will expand eligibility to residents 16 years of age or older with specific health conditions.
Those include cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD, diabetes, heart conditions, immunocompromised from an organ transplant, obesity, pulmonary disease and sickle cell disease, as well as individuals with disabilities, pregnant women and smokers.
All vaccine providers in suburban Cook County have been asked to move to Phase 1B Plus, as will the state-supported mass vaccination sites in the area. Those sites are:
- The Tinley Park Convention Center, 18451 Convention Center Drive
- South Suburban College, 15800 State St. in South Holland
- Triton College, 2000 5th Ave. in River Grove
- A former K-Mart at 1155 E Oakton St in Des Plaines
Those mass vaccination sites were previously only administering vaccine allocated for Cook County, but CCDPH said that beginning next week, they will receive additional vaccine supply to enable the sites to serve all eligible Illinois residents.
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As such, the appointments made available on Friday will be open to Illinois residents who are qualified to get vaccinated in Phase 1B Plus as well as in Phase 1A or the earlier iteration of Phase 1B, which largely included certain essential workers.
CCDPH said it will continue to evaluate whether to move forward into Phase 1C "in the near future."
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday announced that all Illinois residents age 16 and older outside the city of Chicago will become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine next month.
For a complete look at where and how you can make an appointment in Illinois or where you can receive vaccine information for your area, click here.
