Chicago expands vaccine eligibility Monday as COVID-19 cases rise

CHICAGO - Chicago will begin vaccinating residents eligible under Phase 1C of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout next week.

Starting Monday, the newly eligible group includes people with underlying conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity and sickle cell disease, among others. Newly eligible workers will include those in transportation, hospitality, food service, finance, media, information technology and others, city officials said.

Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady outlined the plan in an announcement last week, saying "most Chicagoans will actually be eligible to be vaccinated beginning March 29."

How does the Illinois vaccine rollout stack up to other states

Dr. Shikha Jain from the University of Illinois at Chicago talks about the state of the Illinois vaccine rollout and voices concerns of a COVID-19 bump as people return from spring break.

But, officials asked residents to be patient as vaccine supply and appointments are limited.

DOWNLOAD THE FOX 32 NEWS APP

The expansion comes as state health officials Friday announced 3,002 new COVID-19 cases, along with 33 additional deaths.

It is the first time Illinois has recorded over 3,000 new cases since Feb. 6, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The state’s positivity rate crept up slightly to 2.9%.

A total of 5,281,618 vaccines have been administered in Illinois, health officials said. On Thursday, 126,710 doses were administered in the state.

Since the start of the pandemic, Illinois has reported a total of 1,232,900 cases and 21,203 deaths, health officials said.