All Adults In Chicago Will Be Eligible For A Vaccine On April 19 But Lightfoot Warns Of “Lag”

All Chicago adults will be eligible for a vaccine this month if supply can manage.

President Joe Biden yesterday announced that the deadline to make all adults in the United States eligible for vaccination was being brought forward. The original deadline of May 1 has been pushed up to April 19 and Mayor Lori Lightfoot has declared that Chicago will gladly follow the President’s lead if it is in their hands to do so.

The new deadline is six weeks ahead of what the City of Chicago had previously anticipated, with May 31 the date all Chicagoans aged 16 or older were to become eligible for the vaccine. In response to the presidential announcement, Lightfoot expressed that despite wanting to be in line with the new deadline she doesn’t want to “create expectations that we can’t meet.”

The Mayor warned that it must be made clear that “when we open up on April 19 that doesn’t mean that very day everybody is going to get access to the vaccine.” She went on to explain how “there will be some lag, we want people to go and sign up when it’s their turn but given the supply of vaccine it may be a few weeks or so before they get an appointment.”

Illinois, we said help is on the way, and now, help is here to get more shots in arms. Today, the CDC announced that it will award $90 million to Illinois and another $33 million to Chicago to increase vaccine access and boost confidence—especially in hard hit communities.

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) April 6, 2021

Lightfoot’s comments were preceded by a distribution update from Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady who elucidated that Chicago’s objective is of course to vaccinate as many adults as possible, as soon as possible but “the only thing that has been holding us back is the amount of supply.”

So far, according to Arwady, an “audacious goal” to distribute 95% of Chicago’s vaccine supply every single week had been met every single week without fail.

Both Lightfoot and Arwady said they were 100% in support of moving forward with the deadline and expressed optimism “based upon conversations” that an increased vaccine supply would allow them to keep up with the expectations.

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