United Center Mass Vaccination Site Opens Drive-Thru Option

CHICAGO — As the city prepares to open up eligibility for the coronavirus vaccines to more residents beginning next week, the mass vaccination site at the United Center on Chicago’s West Side opened up a drive-thru option on Tuesday in an attempt to provide more shots to residents who need them.

City residents who are 65 years of age and older who live within 17 Chicago zip codes are now eligible for appointments at the United Center site. The drive-thru portion of the vaccination site comes at a time when state health officials announced they had done more than 70,000 vaccinations over the past 24 hours.

As of Tuesday, Illinois is reporting a positivity rate of 2.9 percent after 1,832 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were announced on Tuesday along with 13 new deaths. The new cases and deaths took the state’s caseload to 1,224,915 confirmed cases since the pandemic began last year and 21,116 deaths.

"Even as we’re getting more and more vaccine doses, we cannot let our guard down, especially with these virulent new strains circulating,” said state health department director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in a news release on Tuesday. “We’ve come so far and are so close to a more normal time, but we’re already seeing some concerning plateaus and even increases in hospitalizations and cases. We’re not out of the woods yet."

Ten of the state's 10 new deaths were Cook County residents, including two females in their 60s, three males in their 60s, two males in their 80s, two females in their 90s and one male in his 90s, health officials announced.

As the city prepares to open up vaccination appointments to residents with pre-existing medical conditions and those who quality as essential workers on March 29, city officials announced that residents who live in “vulnerable, under-vaccinated” areas of the city are eligible for appointments at the United Center.

Eligible zip codes include: 60608, 60609, 60619, 60620, 60621, 60623, 60624, 60628, 60629, 60632, 60636, 60639, 60644, 60649, 60651, 60652 and 60653.

More than 6.2 million doses of the vaccines have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago, state health officials said Tuesday. The state's seven-day rolling average of vaccines being administered is 91,000 doses, according to state health data.

Residents living in those ZIP codes can book appointments at the United Center site by calling (312) 746-4835 between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. City health officials said that targeted outreach is also being done in those communities to help register residents.