CHICAGO — City officials announced on Wednesday that Wrigley Field would be opened as a vaccination center beginning Monday, April 5.
Mayor Lightfoot and the Chicago Department of Public Health have been working on providing more locations to allow more Chicagoans to be vaccinated.
After doing numerous interviews to express the critical need for a site that would be more accessible to the north side community, and to address the recent spike in cases, this is great news said Alder Michelle Smith.
The American Airlines Conference Center at Gallagher Way next to Wrigley Field will be operated by Advocate Aurora Health. It will have capacity to administer approximately 2,000 doses a day. The site will be by appointment only, there is no on-site registration.
While registration is not open quite yet, registration will be available on zocdoc.com/vaccine.
Appointments will be posted on ZocDoc later this week.
Additional appointments will be added daily. All Chicagoans eligible in phase 1a, 1b, or 1c or with pre-existing conditions will be able to schedule appointments.
Please check every day to see if you can get an appointment. This is a significant expansion of eligibility, so almost all people over 16 are eligible if they fit in these categories.
As 84% of all Chicagoans are now eligible, the city expects every eligible person will be able to get vaccinated in April or May. Additional details about telephone options to book appointments at both sites will also be announced prior to opening.
Another site, at Chicago State University, will also open on the same day. You will also be able to continue receiving vaccines from your health care provider as well as these pharmacies and stores:
The site at the United Center will still be operating and appointments there are also available through ZocDoc.
You can also check ilvaccine.org, which is a volunteer-run site that identifies vaccine availability.
Unfortunately, most sites add vaccine appointments everyday and appointments are filled quickly, so you will need to check locations often. If you need help navigating some of this, please call our office at 773-348-9500, and we will help you.
Thank you to the Chicago Cubs and Advocate Aurora Health to bring a much larger venue to bring lifesaving vaccines to community.
We are very happy to see this progress and to see additional options for vaccinations being made available to our community.