COVID-19 Vaccination

All Chicagoans aged six months and up can get vaccinated. Vaccines are free and no proof of insurance or citizenship is required. Children aged six months to 11years old receive a smaller dose of the vaccine than those ages 12 and up.

COVID-19 can make children very sick and cause children to be hospitalized. It can cause both short and long- term health complications, and in some cases, even death. Children infected with COVID-19 can spread it to others, including more vulnerable people like older people and those with underlying health conditions.

Your child may have some side effects, which are normal signs that their body is building protection against COVID-19. On the arm where your child got the shot, your child may experience temporary pain, redness and swelling. Throughout the rest of their body, they may experience temporary tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever, or nausea. These side effects may affect your child’s ability to do daily activities, but they should go away in a few days. There is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine affects fertility. Severe allergic reactions are rare. If your child experiences a severe allergic reaction after getting a COVID-19 vaccine, vaccine providers can rapidly provide care and call for emergency medical services, if needed.

No, people cannot get COVID-19 from the vaccine.

COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines. While COVID-19 vaccines were developed quickly to meet the worldwide demand for protection from the virus, all steps have been taken to ensure their safety and effectiveness. COVID-19 vaccines have undergone and continue to undergo the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history, which includes studies about adolescents and children. For more information, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s resources on COVID-19 vaccination for children and teens.

COVID-19 vaccines are widely available. You can talk to your child’s pediatrician or medical provider, or make an appointment by visiting vaccines.gov, texting your zip code to 438829; or calling 1-800-232-0233. For a list of vaccine opportunities through CPS, please view the opportunities listed on cps.edu/vaccination.

It depends on the type of vaccine and the age of your child. Visit this resource from the Chicago Department of Public Health for more information.

Anyone aged 5 and up who has already received their primary vaccine series or the original booster dose can receive an updated vaccine — also known as a “bivalent booster” — two months after their most recent dose.

For more information, visit chicago.gov/boost.

This updated vaccine is specifically designed to protect against new COVID-19 variants that are currently causing most infections. This is a big deal, and very different from the boosters previously offered – this vaccine gives us a chance to try and get ahead of the virus, by protecting individuals from the dominant variant currently circulating in the U.S. as we head into the fall and winter months. This vaccine also offers protection against all previous variants of concern, like Delta.

For more information, visit chicago.gov/boost.