ILLINOIS – Effective immediately, all Illinois residents age sixteen and up are now eligible for a COVID vaccine. Illinois is making 150,000 appointments open in eleven Illinois-run mass vaccination clinics. However, the changes in eligibility do not apply to Chicago until April 19. April 19 is also the deadline that the Biden administration set to make vaccines available to all adults. The United Center mass vaccination site in Chicago will be exclusively doing Johnson and Johnson vaccines starting on April 20. Even though the United Center is switching to Johnson and Johnson, many of the vaccination sites have to make a few changes because of the low quantity of Johnson and Johnson vaccines. “The next few weeks are not good for Lake County, or for other counties,” said Mark Pfister who is with the Lake County Health Department. “…because the amount of vaccine is going to decrease because of the issues with Johnson and Johnson.” The Lake County site has also changed from a drive-thru site to a walk-in site to accommodate for the demand.

(Compiled from ABC7 Chicago by Ewan Bickford for The Guilford Voyager, original reporting done by Michelle Gallardo, Cate Cauguiran and Alexis McAdams)