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Healthcare providers can begin administering coronavirus vaccines to people over 65 who live or work in Chicago starting Monday in a modified next phase of the city’s immunization plan.
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr Allison Arwady announced the change last week alongside Mayor Lori Lightfoot at a press conference from a new mass vaccination site.
Hospitals and outpatient sites registered as COVID-19 vaccine providers are urged to continue prioritizing health workers, especially non-hospital health workers in phase 1A, in accordance with the updated vaccination plan of the city.
But from Monday, if providers have doses of the vaccine available and no health workers are scheduled for immunization, they can move to a new phase 1B that allows people over 65 to do so. vaccinate.
Priority will be given to people over 75 or those over 65 who have significant underlying conditions, Arwady said.
Officials also announced last week that the city will open six more mass distribution point vaccination (POD) sites, but noted that these sites will continue to focus only on health workers in phase 1A, by appointment. you only.
Arwady noted that those who qualify, namely those over 65, for vaccinations in this next modified phase do not have to register anywhere and that health care providers will be the ones who will primarily administer the vaccines. .
“I don’t want to give people the impression that they can sign up for a date right now,” Arwady said, but added that option would be available “very soon”.
While the move is not the full Phase 1B originally planned for the city, it follows a request from federal officials who this week asked states to vaccinate people aged 65 and over and those under 65. suffering from underlying health conditions that put them at high risk.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker also announced last week that the state will begin its next phase of vaccination, also known as Phase 1B, on January 25.
Phase 1B will focus on residents aged 65 and over and ‘essential frontline workers’ including first responders, education workers such as teachers and support staff, educators, staff grocery store workers, postal workers, etc.
Phase 1B will include approximately 3.2 million Illinois residents, according to the state.
Here is an overview of the people who will be included in Phase 1B:
- Residents aged 65 and over
- Essential frontline workers, meaning “residents who are at a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19 due to their work duties, often because they are unable to work from home, and / or they have to work in close collaboration with others without being able to distance themselves socially. This includes:
- First responders: Fire, law enforcement, 911 workers, security personnel, school officers
- Education: Teachers, school directors, student support, student aid, day educator
- Food and agriculture: Processing, plants, veterinary health, animal husbandry services, animal care
- Manufacturing: Industrial production of goods for retail, wholesale or other manufacturers
- Correctional officers and inmates: Prison officers, staff in juvenile facilities, workers providing in-person support, inmates
- USPS workers
- Public transport workers: Flight Crew, Bus Drivers, Train Drivers, Taxi Drivers, Para-Transit Drivers, In-Person Support, Rideshare Services
- Grocery store employees: Baggers, cashiers, storers, pickup, customer service
- Shelters and guard staff: Homeless shelter, women’s shelter, day / day program for adults, sheltered workshop, psychosocial rehabilitation
Pritzker said beginning Friday that the state would maintain “hundreds of vaccination sites across the state, including retail drugstore chains, Illinois National Guard mobile teams, state-run mass vaccination sites in northern, central, and southern Illinois, hospitals and urgent care settings and, ultimately, physician’s offices and large employers that may house their own workplace clinics “
The Illinois National Guard will be activated to help local health departments expand vaccination clinics, Pritzker said, with the first two teams deploying to Cook County Department of Health sites.
Starting Jan. 25, sites run by the National Guard will begin vaccinating residents eligible for Phase 1B, as well as CVS, Jewel Osco and Walgreens sites, Pritzker said.
All of these vaccination sites will be by appointment only, Pritzker said, asking residents not to queue at the store or call their local pharmacies. He said before the start of Phase 1B, the state will launch the Illinois COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Plan website to give residents information on finding a vaccination site. nearby and on how to make an appointment.
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