All six COVID-19 mass vaccination sites in suburban Cook County will begin accepting walk-in appointments Monday as the return of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine bolsters shot supply across the Chicago area.
After getting the green light from federal regulators, the temporarily shelved J&J doses started going into arms again Saturday at Chicago’s Kennedy-King College site, and it’ll be offered at other city-run sites next week.
Moderna and Pfizer doses continue to make up the vast majority of Illinois’ vaccine supply, but the one-and-done J&J dose adds an important weapon to the fight against the coronavirus, according to Dr. Rachel Rubin, co-lead of the Cook County Department of Public Health.
“It’s important to have choices and to have as much vaccine available out there as possible so that we can get as many people vaccinated as possible,” Rubin said Saturday. She emphasized that the J&J formula is “safe and effective” despite the handful of severe blood clots that have been identified among millions of recipients.
“The benefits of getting vaccinated far, far outweigh the risks of getting a blood clot. In fact, you’re much more at risk of getting a blood clot if you get COVID-19 then if you get the vaccine with Johnson & Johnson,” Rubin said.
The odds of severe side effects from the J&J vaccine are “about two in a million,” Rubin’s co-lead Dr. Kiran Joshi said — “again, very, very rare.”
All three vaccines are readily available across the city and suburbs, though. For now, the six suburban mass vaccination sites carry Moderna in Tinley Park and Pfizer in Matteson, River Grove, South Holland, Des Plaines and Forest Park.
After months of frustration for residents scrambling to find appointments, “we’re seeing a little bit of decreased demand for the vaccine,” Rubin said. “That’s one of the reasons that we’re moving to a walk-in option.”
Appointments are still encouraged, but walk-ins will be accepted at the county’s mass vax sites Monday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. till 5 p.m.
“We’re trying to make this as simple as possible, to remove any barriers that people seeking vaccination may face, and ultimately, to make the right thing to do the easy thing to do,” Joshi said.
About 29% of Illinois’ 12.7 million residents are fully vaccinated after the latest 125,524 doses were administered statewide Friday.
Meanwhile, infections have been falling across the state for almost two weeks after a monthlong spike in cases.
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“We have seen what we’ve believed to be a slowing in that velocity, and are hopeful that we have peaked or plateaued,” Joshi said. “I would urge everyone, though, to continue to stay the course when it comes to all the tried and true public health measures,” including masking and social distancing.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 2,907 new cases of the disease were diagnosed among 94,766 tests to lower the average statewide positivity rate to 3.5% — its lowest point since the beginning of the month.
But officials also reported 25 more COVID-19 deaths, including that of a Kane County woman in her 40s.
The state’s death toll is up to 21,802 among more than 1.3 million residents who have tested positive over the last 13 months.
For help finding an appointment in Chicago, visit zocdoc.com or call (312) 746-4835.
For suburban Cook County sites, visit vaccine.cookcountyil.gov or call (833) 308-1988.
To find providers elsewhere, visit coronavirus.illinois.gov or call (833) 621-1284.
