“Our goal in Chicago is to vaccinate as many residents as possible as fast as we can,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in the statement. “While vaccine availability is still very limited nationwide, this exciting new partnership with Zocdoc is another step toward empowering individuals and families as we fight this disease and lean into the historic recovery that is sure to follow.”
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady still encouraged people to try to get an appointment first through their primary care provider, local pharmacy or their employer. The Illinois Health & Hospital Association is encouraging its members to participate, the city says.
New York-based Zocdoc is offering the service free “to any city, state, or large care organization as a public health service.”
“Demand for the vaccine is understandably high, and it is essential that we have tools that make it easy for eligible patients to get it safely and efficiently,” Dr. Paul Casey, chief medical officer at Rush University Medical System, said in the statement. “At Rush, we are focused on ensuring that no drop of vaccine is wasted or sitting on a shelf, and this collaboration furthers that objective by connecting our work with vaccination efforts across the city of Chicago.”
Chicagoans can visit Zocdoc’s website to confirm their location and eligibility. Zocdoc will show nearby vaccination locations and real-time appointment availability. If no appointment is available, Zocdoc can email when a slot does open up. Chicago received 39,950 first vaccine doses last week (and 19,675 second doses). As more become available, Zocdoc will help manage matching already-strong demand with a growth in dose supply.
Arwady says the city’s primary approach for reaching Chicagoans without internet is through their healthcare providers, who have been directed to reach out to patients directly. The city’s Protect Chicago Plus program is also targeting at-risk neighborhoods, including with direct door-knocking.
Cook County’s Department of Public Health, which is managing the vaccine rollout in Cook County’s suburbs, has launched its own hotline—833-308-1988—reachable from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays. Thirty Cook County Health workers are staffing the hotline, and the county has plans to add more people as demand climbs. As of Jan. 28, the hotline had handled more than 10,000 calls that were successful in registration, department officials said.
Chicago’s seven-day percent positivity has likewise fallen to 5.6 percent, down from 6.9 percent a week before. Its seven-day rolling case average is 577, down 18 percent compared to last week. Arwady has said she’d like to see that number below 400. The city has maintained somewhat tighter COVID mitigations than the state allows for that reason.