CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot is ramping up her plea to the federal government to send more coronavirus vaccine doses to the city.
Mayor Lightfoot said Chicago is opening more points of dispensing, or PODs, for COVID-19 vaccinations across the city.
"By next week, Chicago will have a total of six new mass vaccination sites to increase distribution - quick to distribute as many as 25,000 shots every week," she said.
Lightfoot visited one of two new sites that opened Thursday, but said Chicago needs many more first doses to protect all Chicagoans quickly. The last three sites are expected to open in the next week. Most are at City Colleges of Chicago campuses.
But, the Mayor said, the number of vaccine doses coming from the feds is not keeping pace.
“We are frustrated by the federal government's response to COVID-19 overall, but particularly the vaccine rollout which is not delivering on its promises of the quantities that we've seen," Lightfoot said.
"In just the last two weeks, we have received less vaccines than we did initially. Two weeks ago, the number fell to 38,000 first doses, last week the number dropped to 32,000," she said. "That is clearly the opposite direction of where we need to be going. At the rate we've been on, Chicago won't be fully vaccinated for another year and a half, and that is completely, totally unacceptable. We must accelerate the number of first doses we're receiving on a weekly basis so we can get those doses into people's arms and give people hope and safety that the end of this terrible pandemic is near."
Related
Public Health Director Dr. Allison Arwady said this week the city received 34,000.
"34,550 first doses of vaccine is better than 32,000+, but let me remind you that in Phase 1A we have approximately 400,000 healthcare workers," she said.
Dr. Arwady said in the next phase there are 360,000 Chicagoans 65 and older and another 360,000 essential workers.
"When I think about 600,000 people to vaccinate in that next phase, getting 36,000, 32,000, 35,000 doses a week isn't going to be enough for us to move ahead quickly," Dr. Arwady said.
It's unacceptable, Mayor Lightfoot said. She said distribution needs to be accelerated across the country.