CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Residents from four more Chicago ZIP codes can schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments at the United Center in an effort to get more shots into arms of people living in neighborhoods hit hard by the pandemic, city officials announced Saturday.
The newly added ZIP codes are 60624, 60644, 60651 and 60653, Mayor Lightfoot’s office said in a statement. They join the 60608, 60619, 60620, 60649 and 60652 ZIP codes.
Anyone who lives in those areas can sign up for an appointment at events.juvare.com/chicago/UCPOD/ with the code “CCVICHICAGO,” or by reaching the multilingual call center at (312) 746-4835.
“These are the areas where we’ve seen some of the highest rates of severe illness and death throughout the pandemic, and where access to the vaccine has been most challenging. So we had to act,” said Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady. “We’re also doing this because if we want to defeat this pandemic, we need to control the spread of the virus where it is the worst, and that impacts all of us.”
Chicago residents who live outside of those ZIP codes and try to sign up will have their appointments canceled, city officials said.
Early in the vaccine rollout, only 18% of vaccines were going to Black or Latino Chicagoans, city officials said. Now, data from the most recent week shows 59% of first dose COVID vaccine went to Black or Latinos residents.
The news comes as health officials announced 1,675 more coronavirus cases in Illinois Saturday, along with 23 more deaths, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The total number of cases since the start of the pandemic now stands at 1,207,847, with the death toll at 20,924.
The seven-day positivity rate also dropped slightly, from 2.3% to 2.1%, health officials announced.
As of midnight Saturday, 3,791,273 vaccines were administered in Illinois, with 110,570 doses given in the last day alone, health officials said.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2021. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)