As Vice President Kamala Harris visited Chicago on April 6, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city will meet President Joe Biden's call to open vaccine eligibility to all U.S. adults by April 19, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Harris, making a brief visit to Chicago en route to Washington from her home state of California, toured a vaccination site run by the Chicago Federation of Labor for union workers.
It was Harris' first trip to Chicago since the former U.S. senator was sworn in as vice president on Jan. 20 and came at Lightfoot's invitation. Harris was joined at a COVID-19 vaccination site—the headquarters of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399, in Chinatown—by a group of Democrats that included Lightfoot, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis.
In Chicago, the seven-day rolling average of daily cases and the positivity rate have exceeded 400 and 5%, respectively—Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady's threshold of concern.
City officials had been sticking with a May 1 eligibility date. However, Lightfoot said later that the city would meet Biden's April 19 date to open enrollment—but said the city lacks the necessary vaccines to deliver the shots then and called for more vaccine doses to be delivered to Chicago.
According to ABC7Chicago.com, Harris also made a surprise stop at the popular South Side establishment Brown Sugar Bakery. Illinois' Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx joined her there.
