West Side COVID-19 vaccine sites open appointments to all adult Austin residents

Inoculations are being doled out to any Austin resident 18 and over starting March 12 at clinics run by Loretto Hospital and Rush University Medical Center.

A dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is administered at Norwegian American Hospital in January.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file

All residents of the Austin neighborhood 18 years and over can now sign up for coronavirus vaccine appointments as part of an initiative to inoculate over a thousand people weekly.

One vaccine site will be operated by Rush University Medical Center at Catalyst Circle Rock Charter School, 116 N. Central Ave.

The site will dole out 1,200 vaccines every Sunday starting March 14. The site will operate through April 18.

Appointments can be scheduled by calling (312) 563-0767.

Walk-ins are not accepted, and no ID or health insurance is required.

The operation is part of the Protect Chicago Plus program, which aims to vaccinate residents in vulnerable neighborhood, PCC Community Wellness Center said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Loretto Hospital is vaccinating residents every Friday and Saturday through April 17 at Amundsen Park, 6200 W. Bloomingdale Ave.

To schedule an appointment there, residents can call (773) 996-7937.

Dr. Paul Luning, chief medical officer of PCC Community Wellness Center, said the vaccine initiative was an “enormous collaborative effort” across the West Side.

“We are pleased to participate in the Protect Chicago Plus-Austin initiative to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus,” Luning said in the statement.

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