Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed to redouble efforts to get the vaccine to those in neighborhoods hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic by earmarking doses for those Black and Latino communities as the state begins the second phase of its vaccination effort.

“My word for you is patience,” Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said Thursday. “I know a lot of you will be frustrated.”

The city of Chicago’s tentative vaccine distribution plan estimates that there will not be enough COVID-19 vaccine available for all Chicagoans ages 16 and older until May 31, the city’s top doctor announced Monday.

New mass vaccination sites will open on Friday at Olive Harvey City College, on Tuesday at Kennedy-King City College and on Wednesday at Truman City College, officials announced.

City health officials will allow Chicagoans 65 and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19 starting next week — if there are doses available after health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities are vaccinated, the city’s top doctor told aldermen Wednesday.

Chicago health officials have distributed 95% of the vaccine sent to the city by federal officials, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said, but has the capacity to handle more doses. The current pace is “frankly, unacceptable,” she said. “The federal government must step up.”

More than a half dozen large parties have been shut down by city officials in the past month, even as Chicago remains under a stay-at-home advisory designed to prevent people from contracting COVID-19.

As part of the city’s campaign to convince those skeptical about the coronavirus vaccine to get inoculated, Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, got the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at the new clinic.

Five staff members at a health clinic that serves Chicago’s Latino community became the first Chicagoans to get the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Monday.

Just days before Christmas, a trio of high-profile doctors, including U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, made a plea for people to follow public health measures designed to stop the spread of COVID-19, even as two vaccines are being distributed across the U.S.

A COVID-19 vaccination was administered for the first time Tuesday morning in Austin, a Chicago neighborhood ravaged by the virus. Mayor Lori Lightfoot called it “history in the making.”

An average of 1,729 Chicagoans have been diagnosed each day with the coronavirus during the past week, a 30% increase from the previous week, according to Chicago Department of Public Health data. 

Officials with the Chicago Department of Public Health are expecting the first vaccine shipment to Chicago to include 23,000 doses. Weekly shipments of vaccine are expected to follow, said Dr. Allison Arwady.

The first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine could be administered to health care workers in Chicago in three weeks, Chicago health officials said Tuesday.

Opponents of a permit application for a metal shredding facility on the Southeast Side question whether public comments will fall on deaf ears.

As officials imposed sweeping restrictions designed to stop a sustained and grave surge of the coronavirus, Chicago health officials stopped showcasing the number of people who test positive for COVID-19.