'It Is Sad': The United Center COVID Mass Vaccination Site Closes Thursday
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago's United Center is closing its drive-through COVID vaccination site.
It's a bookend to what started as a frantic race to get vaccines into as many arms as possible. CBS 2's Marissa Parra has the story.
At its highest, the United Center was seeing roughly 6,400 people show up in one day by car, and on foot, to get vaccinated.
Last week, that number hovered around 300 people per day.
But Christopher Shields from the Chicago Department of Public Health said Thursday is final date wasn't data driven, but rather planned in advance by the United Center.
He likened closing the vaccine site, which has helped save thousands of Chicagoans to the end of an era.
"It is sad. The amount of pride I see in the work force here, it's almost like we had a little family here," Shields said. "Everyone was driven by the end goal which was to vaccinate as many people as we could."
Despite the fact that Thursday is the last day, there were number of people in line to get their shot.
One woman who said she couldn't take the vaccine until Thursday because she was out of the country.
"I'm a dual citizen, so I was in Brazil with my family," said Beatriz Castro.
"Some people don't want to get it and some people do want to get it, but were away or had health reasons," said Felipe Paiva. "And she falls into that category."
This site is open until 6:00 Thursday.
And for people who got one of two shots at the United Center have no reason to worry.
The city will be using Malcolm X College as a "continuation site."
Below is a map to the United Center if you want to get there on Thursday:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rfE3jAFTXLvfgicAqOO-P-iPo97jjWda/view
