(WTTW News)
Chicagoans who get vaccinated by the Chicago Department of Public Health starting Saturday will get both a lifesaving inoculation against COVID-19 and also a $100 gift card, city officials announced.
City crews will offer either the Pfizer vaccine, for those ages 12 and older, or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, for those 18 and older, at one of the city’s mobile vaccination events, at a resident’s home or at clinics designed for Chicago Public Schools students and their families, officials said.
Chicagoans can make an appointment to get vaccinated by calling 312-746-4835 or going to chicago.gov/athome.
Even as the number of vaccinations have increased by 15% during the past month, Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said more Chicagoans must get jabbed to stop the surge of COVID-19 driven by the delta variant of the virus.
“We’re not as vaccinated as we should be against COVID,” Arwady said Tuesday, even as an average of 5,000 Chicagoans are vaccinated every day.
An average of 460 Chicagoans have been diagnosed each day with the coronavirus during the past week, a 2% decrease from the previous week, according to Chicago Department of Public Health data.
The city’s test positivity rate has dropped to 4.3% from 4.4% during the past seven days, even as the number of tests performed dropped 1%, according to city data. During the past week, 32 people were admitted to the hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19 every day, and three people died, according to city data.
Even as 61% of all Chicagoans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, only 44% of Black Chicagoans have been vaccinated, according to city data.
That compares with 53.4% of Latino Chicagoans, 64% of White Chicagoans and 67% of Asian Chicagoans, according to city data.
Unvaccinated Chicagoans who get COVID-19 are approximately 15 times more likely to die from the virus than people who are fully vaccinated, Arwady said.
Approximately 40% of the 5,811 Chicagoans who have died after being diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began in March 2020 were Black, according to city data. Chicago is 28.7% Black, according to the 2020 Census.
That disparity has only grown since April 19, when vaccines became available for all Chicagoans older than 12. Of the 512 people who have died since then, 53% were Black, according to city data.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
