Healthcare providers may begin administering coronavirus vaccines to people over the age of 65 who live or work in Chicago starting Monday at a later, modified phase of the city’s vaccination plan.
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady announced the change last week with Mayor Lori Lightfoot at a news conference at a new mass vaccination site.
Hospitals and outpatient sites registered as COVID-19 vaccine providers are being instructed to continue to prioritize health workers, especially non-hospital health workers in Phase 1A, according to the city’s updated vaccination plan.
But starting Monday, if providers have vaccine doses available and have no health workers scheduled for vaccination, they can move to a new phase 1B that allows those over 65 to receive the vaccine.
Priority will be given to those over the age of 75 or those over the age of 65 who have significant baseline conditions, Arwady said.
Officials also announced last week that the city will open six more mass vaccination points (PODs), but noted that these sites will continue to focus only on Phase 1A health workers, based only on programming.
Arwady mentioned that those who qualify, ie those over 65, for vaccinations in the next modified phase should not register anywhere and that health care providers will be the ones who will mainly administer the vaccines.
“I don’t want to give people the impression that they can sign up for an appointment yet,” Arwady said, but added that this option will be available “very soon.”
While the move is not the entire Phase 1B originally planned for the city, it follows a request from federal officials this week asking states to vaccinate people 65 and older and those under 65 with conditions of underlying health that put them at high risk.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also announced last week that the state will begin its next vaccination phase, also known as Phase 1B, on January 25th.
Phase 1B will focus on residents aged 65 and over and “essential front-line workers”, including those receiving assistance, education workers such as teachers and support staff, childcare workers, grocery store employees, postal service workers and more.
Phase 1B will include approximately 3.2 million people in Illinois, according to the state.
Here’s a look at who will be included in Phase 1B:
- Residents over the age of 65
- Frontline essential workers, meaning “residents who are at higher risk of COVID-19 exposure due to their workloads, often because they cannot work from home and / or have to work closely with others without being able to distance themselves socially . This includes:
- First respondents: Fires, law enforcement, 911 workers, security personnel, school officers
- Education: Teachers, principals, student assistance, student aid, day laborer
- Food and agriculture: Processing, plants, veterinary health, animal husbandry services, animal care
- Manufacturing: Industrial production of goods for distribution to retail, wholesale or other products
- Fair workers and detainees: Prison officers, juvenile facility staff, personal support workers, detainees
- USPS workers
- Public transport workers: Flight crew, bus drivers, train conductors, taxi drivers, para-transit drivers, personal assistance, travel sharing services
- Grocery store workers: Baggers, cashiers, stocks, pick-ups, customer service
- Shelters and day care staff: Shelter without shelter, shelter for women, adult / abandonment program, sheltered workshop, psychosocial rehabilitation
Pritzker said Friday that starting this week, the state will stand “hundreds of vaccination sites statewide, including retail pharmacy chains, Illinois National Guard mobile teams, state-run mass vaccination locations.” in northern, central and southern Illinois, hospitals and emergency care locations, and finally physician offices and large employers that can host their own clinics in the workplace. “
The Illinois National Guard will be activated to assist local health departments in expanding vaccination clinics, Pritzker said. The first two teams are running on Cook County Department of Health websites.
Starting Jan. 25, National Guard-led sites will begin vaccinating phase 1B eligible residents, as well as CVS, Jewel Osco and Walgreens sites, Pritzker said.
All of these vaccination sites will be for appointments only, Pritzker said, urging residents not to line up at the store or call their local pharmacies. He said that before phase 1B begins, the state will launch the COVID-19 vaccination plan website in Illinois to provide residents with information on finding a nearby vaccination site and how to make an appointment.