COVID-19 Shots For Kids As Young As 6 Months Available In IL This Week

ILLINOIS — Parents of children as young as six months old who wish to have their kids vaccinated against COVID-19 can start doing so in Illinois as early as this week, health officials announced over the weekend.

The Food and Drug Administration recently authorized Moderna and Pfizer shots for children between 6 months and 5 years old. The agency’s director said that administration of the shots could begin as soon as local healthcare providers and pharmacies for the shots for young children.

The Pfizer application requires three doses of the vaccines while the Moderna application can be done in two shots, officials said. With the Pfizer vaccines, the first two shots would be given three weeks apart with the third coming eight weeks after the second shot.

Vaccines for young children are being made available at a time when Illinois Health officials on Friday announced that there were 27,112 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, including 68 deaths, over the past week.

Despite the new cases, however, Cook, DuPage, Kane, and Lake counties were all downgraded from the high community rate as both cases and hospitalizations related to the virus dropped over the past week, health officials said. Will County remains in the high category while McHenry County dropped into the low community category.

In Illinois, pharmacies such as Walgreens will be offerings the shots beginning on Friday, officials said. The Deerfield-based retailer said that appointments may be made for children either on the Walgreens app or by calling (800)-Walgreens. The company announced that some Walgreens locations could offer the shots earlier than Friday depending on the availability of the vaccines.

Several Chicago neighborhood vaccine clinics will be offering the shots for children as young as 6 months old with appointments beginning as early as next week. Those clinics are located at:

• Morgan Park – 11840 S. Marshfield
• Pullman – 756 E. 111th St.
• South Lawndale – 2551 W. Cermak

o June 28, July 14, July 23, July 26, August 11, August 20, September 8, October 6

o June 30, July 13, July 16, July 28, August 4, August 10, August 13, September 1

o July 1, July 29, August 3, August 27, August 31, September 6, September 24, October 4

The City Colleges of Chicago will be offering family vaccination clinics with shots being administered following this schedule:

• June 25: Kennedy-King College, 6301 S. Halsted St.
• July 2: Richard J. Daley College, 7500 S. Pulaski Rd., Wilbur Wright College, 4300 N. Narragansett Ave.
• July 9: Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Jackson Blvd., Truman College, 1145 W. Wilson Ave.
• July 23: Kennedy-King College,
• July 30: Richard J. Daley College and Wilbur Wright College, Malcolm X College and Truman College, Kennedy-King College and Richard J. Daley College, and Wilbur Wright College

• Sept. 3: Malcolm X College and Truman College