The location, located on Oakton Street not far from O’Hare Airport, is one of the first to offer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Appointments to the Des Plaines mass vaccination site can be made at vaccine.cookcountyil.gov or by calling (833) 308-1988. The site will be open from Monday to Friday, from 7 am to 7 pm
“Today, with our inauguration, we are very excited to say that we are offering 800 vaccination vacancies today,” said Ratna Kanumury of Cook County Health.
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Jack Alberts, 83, was thrilled to arrive for his appointment, reflecting on how difficult it was not to see his grandchildren.
“I haven’t seen my grandchildren … excuse me … for over a year and this is kind of difficult,” he said.
Alberts, like many others, struggled to make an appointment when Cook County Health opened them on Thursday. All 18,000 places were booked in a matter of hours.
Jill Walsh is a nursing instructor who thought she would administer the vaccine long before she got it, but was fortunate enough to get an appointment on the day the website opened.
“I was waiting for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and didn’t expect to get it until this summer, so when it became available locally, I was thrilled,” she said.
Scott Rovner felt he won the lottery when he finally got an online slot.
“When it happened, it was like, ‘My God, thank God I have an appointment,'” said Royner. “I just happened to have a day off today, so everything went well.”
Kevin Schneider is a college student who works at McDonald’s and will celebrate his 19th birthday this weekend as a vaccinated man.
“It’s like taking a weight off my chest, I feel a lot safer,” he said.
The new Des Plaines site is for Cook County residents only and becomes the first large-scale vaccination site in the state to administer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“It is a single dose vaccine that is 100% safe and effective in preventing death,” said Kanumury.
Cook County Health says that as the site grows, it will be possible to offer 2,800 vacancies on any given day.
At the moment, four 18-member National Guard teams are supporting the effort.
The focus is to vaccinate people aged 65 and over, health professionals and frontline and essential staff before opening it up to the general population.
“The federal government has assured us that it will be able to provide enough vaccine to anyone who wants to receive it by the end of May,” said Kanumury.
Cook County Health says it does not know when it will offer more consultations for this current phase. They said it will depend on vaccine shipments.
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