Chicago health officials say the city may enter the next phase of the vaccine’s launch by the end of the month, but who will be eligible?
The city has so far opted not to enter Phase 1B Plus vaccinations alongside the state, which would open doses for residents with certain underlying health conditions.
Although no eligibility announcements have been made so far, Phase 1C would likely expand the vaccine’s eligibility to all other essential workers not yet eligible, as well as to Chicago residents over 16 with underlying medical conditions.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Phase 1C includes:
- People aged 65-74 years because they are at high risk of hospitalization, illness and death due to COVID-19. People aged 65 to 74 who also reside in long-term care facilities should receive vaccination in Phase 1a.
- People aged 16 to 64 with underlying medical conditions which increase the risk of serious life-threatening complications of COVID-19.
- Other essential workers, such as people working in transportation and logistics, food service, housing construction and finance, information technology, communications, energy, law, media, public safety and public health.
The CDC notes, however, that Phase 1B and Phase 1C may overlap in some cases, as underlying medical conditions.
Chicago remains in Phase 1B, which includes essential frontline workers and residents aged 65 and over, as well as health workers and long-term care facility employees and residents who were eligible for Phase 1A of the city’s deployment.
Although the city chose not to expand to Phase 1B Plus, Chicago Department of Public Health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said that if Chicago received “much more vaccine” in March, it is possible that authorities will begin to vaccinate those with underlying diseases before entering Phase 1C.
Many residents qualified for Phase 1B Plus state implementation can now be vaccinated at the United Center-administered mass vaccination site, administered by the federal government.
Chicago health officials previously announced that the city was targeting an estimated start date for the next phase, Phase 1C, starting on March 29.
Arwady said the city could start these vaccinations at an earlier date if it sees an increase in available doses, but she noted that the city remains on track to enter Phase 1C in late March.
“We will make adjustments for this [date] as we’ve always done, as we see how vaccine doses come in, “said Arwady.” But honestly, the way [vaccines have] What is happening is how I expected them to arrive. March will look much better than February in relation to the vaccine. And I think April is going to look a lot better than March. ”
Arwady said that Phase 1C would probably start on March 29 and Phase 2, which includes all residents over 16, could begin on May 31.
“It may be earlier than expected, but the timeline that we have set out in fact continues to look quite consistent with our numbers,” said Arwady. “If you remember, we actually said that the end of March, 29 March, was where we were assuming that we could be at a point where we would be able to move to 1C and then, the end of May is when we could be ahead for Phase 2 and I didn’t see anything that really suggests any major differences in that regard. ”
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