United Center Vaccination Registration Opens: How To Sign Up

Chicago IL

04 March, 2021

12:01 PM

Description

CHICAGO — The first 110,000 appointments to receive COVID-19 vaccines at the United Center parking lot opened Thursday morning for seniors. People aged 65 or older can now register online at Zocdoc.com/vaccine or by calling 312-746-4835. The multi-lingual call center is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Public health officials urged Illinois residents to help seniors in their families and communities sign up for the appointments, which are expected to go fast. The first available appointments are walk-up only, with plans for a drive-thru option later in the month. "We really, really, really, really want you to help anybody over the age of 65," said Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. "If you know someone, we want them to take advantage of this. There are appointments right now." Registration for remaining appointments will open to other members of the Phase 1b+ priority group, which includes front-line essential workers and those with underlying health conditions, starting at 4:30 p.m. Sunday — if any appointments are still available. Staff at the site are scheduled to begin administering the first jabs Tuesday. By Wednesday, they're expected to be administering doses to 6,000 people a day, every day from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the next eight weeks. That's a 72 percent increase in jabs from last week, when the city administered about 8,300 doses a day citywide. The United Center vaccination site is being managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, as part of a federal pilot program. Officials said it will be administering the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Related: 110K United Center Vaccination Appointments To Open For Seniors It's open! All Illinois residents who are 65+ can now start making appointments for the @UnitedCenter mass vaccination site. Appointments can be made two ways: https://t.co/PBFBCOb5SC or by calling 312-746-4835. There will be NO onsite registration. pic.twitter.com/TTMGQ3Xt7T— ChiPublicHealth (@ChiPublicHealth) March 4, 2021 Three hours in, the registration website was holding steady, although some callers to the hotline described long wait times and disconnections. The call center has 200 staffers, but high call volume was anticipated. City officials said about 13,000 appointments had already been booked in the first three hours of registration. The founder and CEO of Zocdoc, the software company used to manage online registration, told WLS he expected all 110,000 vaccine appointments to be fully booked Thursday. Up to about 21,000 appointments were reportedly reserved to the call center. Appointments are open to all Illinois residents. Vaccinations are free do not require proof of health insurance or legal residency. No federal identification is required, officials said. The site's entrance is at 1724 W. Madison St., with the entrance in Lot E at the corner of Wood and Madigan. Parking in Lot A is free; enter on Washington Street between Wood and Wolcott streets. Chicago residents unable to arrange transportation to and from the United Center are eligible for a $40 credit from the ride-hailing company Uber after booking via Zocdoc. There will also be a free shuttle available for transport the half-block to the vaccination site, and those who need mobility assistance may bring a companion to accompany them. A centralized tent for those with disabilities will also be available. For homebound Chicago seniors unable to travel to vaccination sites, as well as their caregivers, the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Chicago Fire Department launched a new program Thursday where fire department community paramedics begin administering vaccines to seniors in their own home. Those interested in signing up were asked to fill out a survey online.