- Credibility:
BRONZEVILLE — Several South Side organizations will offer free vaccinations for residents 12 and older this weekend.
Premier Health Urgent Care, 100 Black Men of Chicago, Sib’s Breakfast Cluba and other local groups are hosting a back to school celebration 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at the CSO Sportsplex, 1301 E. 47th St.
Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be available, and kids can visit an ice cream truck or the Youth Talent Showcase afterward. Families can sign up for the shot online, but won’t be turned away if they didn’t register. Pfizer shots will be reserved for school-aged kids, while Johnson & Johnson and Moderna shots will be given to adults, organizers said.
Masks are recommended as the vaccination site is indoors. People who need a second dose will be able to schedule their next appointment on site right away.
Drive-through COVID testing will also be available.
Separately, a Chicago Department of Public Health mobile unit will be at Our Lady of Africa Parish, 44 E. 41st St., to sign up residents for at-home vaccinations 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday at the church’s food pantry.
Canned goods, fresh produce, and other nonperishable items will be given away. For more information, contact Ladell Johnson at 773-642-6532.
City officials are encouraging people to get fully vaccinated against coronavirus as the more-contagious Delta variant rapidly spreads.
As early as next month, the Delta will be responsible for the majority of coronavirus cases, Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said this week.
At the same time, more than 95 percent of locals who are hospitalized or who have recently died from COVID-19 didn’t have all their vaccine shots, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.
The three vaccines approved for use in the United States have been shown to still be largely effective at preventing severe illness and death from the Delta variant, Arwady said.
Delta has not yet been shown to make people sicker, but it’s far more contagious than the original virus, increasing the risk a person will come into contact with and could get sick from COVID-19.
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