Health & Fitness
Thousands Get Coronavirus Vaccines At Mass Clinic In Aurora
City workers converted the upper floor of a vacant department store to serve as a mass vaccination clinic for Aurora residents.
AURORA, IL — About 2,400 people received a coronavirus vaccine Monday at an old Aurora department store, which officials have converted into a mass clinic.
Residents scooped up all 2,400 appointments within six hours of the city’s website opening for registration, officials said. The mass clinic Monday at the former Carson Pirie Scott building was open to residents who are eligible for a vaccine under Phase 1b guidelines, which include frontline workers and seniors.
Find out what's happening in Aurorafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Residents were required to verify they live in Aurora before signing up for a vaccine at the mass clinic, the Aurora Beacon-News reports.
City workers converted the upper floor of the vacant 181,000-square-foot department store to serve as a mass vaccination site, which officials expect to use for future clinics as more doses become available.
Find out what's happening in Aurorafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
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Jewel-Osco partnered with the City of Aurora and the Kane County Health Department to conduct vaccinations at Monday’s mass clinic.
With an inadequate supply of vaccine doses and “extremely high” demand, “it is going to take creative collaborations such as this to offer more mass vaccination sites in Aurora,” Mayor Richard Irvin said in a news release. “I am committed to pulling out all the stops to make our city a priority in the vaccination rollout process.”
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About 750 people received coronavirus vaccines last week at the Cathedral of Grace St. John AME Church after a coalition of Black churches and organizations formed the Black Vax Aurora to address significant racial disparities in the county’s vaccine rollout.
A similar group called Latinx Vax Aurora is coordinating a mass vaccination clinic for about 750 people on March 19. More details are expected to be announced soon.
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As of Tuesday, Latino residents have received about 10.9 percent of all doses administered in Kane County, despite representing just under a third of the county's population, according to statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health and U.S. Census Bureau.
Black residents, who make up about 6 percent of Kane County's population, have received just 3.03 percent of all doses administered there, the state's data shows.
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More than 73 percent of all coronavirus vaccine doses administered in the county by Wednesday were given to white people, who make up about 57 percent of the county's population.
Aurora officials are planning a third mass vaccination clinic on March 25 for residents who have disabilities. They are considering several new sites for mass clinics, including the Fox Valley Mall and a former Walmart store on Galena Boulevard, the Beacon-News reports.
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