Melanie Owens, a pharmacy manager at a Walgreens in Bronzeville, was a little uncertain about getting the vaccine.

It was January and the rollout was new. She said the development process felt rushed, and she didn’t trust information coming from the Trump administration. But then Owens started picking up extra shifts at vaccine clinics.

Walgreens was one of the pharmacy partners chosen by the federal government to vaccinate workers and residents at long-term care facilities. Owens didn’t even make it through her first shift before the residents, excited about building immunity to COVID-19, changed her mind.

“I think I vaccinated maybe 20 people before I was like, ‘OK, maybe I should give this a chance,’” she said.

Owens was vaccinated that day. She said that as someone administering the vaccines, she felt a responsibility to protect herself and the patients. Seeing her opt in also swayed another Black woman working as an administrator at the clinic to get her vaccine, too, Owens said.

At Owens’ Walgreens location in Bronzeville, she hasn’t experienced many customers that are hesitant about the vaccine quite yet. So far, it’s just people that are eager to get it, wondering when they can schedule an appointment. But as vaccine supply starts to catch up with demand, that is expected to change. 

State and city officials are also concentrating on an equitable vaccine rollout. But so far, state data shows Black and Brown Illinoisans are far less likely than whites to have been vaccinated, despite the fact that COVID-19 has disproportionately affected people of color. 

The Illinois Department of Public Health reports that of the 2.2 million doses administered in the state, 67 percent have gone to white residents—who account for just 61 percent of the state’s population. Meanwhile, 7.7 percent of the doses have gone to Black residents and another 7.8 percent have gone to Hispanic residents, who account for 14.6 percent and 17.5 percent of the population, respectively.

Retail pharmacies, including Walgreens, have been vocal about their ability to help with a more equitable rollout. Pharmacies are embedded in communities and often act as the main health care access point for people. They have existing relationships with community members, which could make it easier to get people in for a vaccine.

The Walgreens Owens’ works at has leveraged its relationships with customers in its vaccination efforts.

When it started scheduling COVID vaccines about two weeks ago, it closed the online scheduling portal.

They “had us make our own schedule based on our normal customer base,” Owens said. “Slots were filling up with people that weren’t in the community, (who were) just trying to get the shots anywhere.” 

The pharmacy was one of 450 Illinois Walgreens that began administering vaccines over Presidents’ Day weekend, as part of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program.

The program, which the Biden administration announced earlier this month, sends doses directly to its pharmacy partners. The allotment is separate from the doses the state gets from the federal government. It is also separate from the doses set aside for long-term care facilities. 

Walgreens said when the program launched that the participating pharmacies would be concentrated in areas hit hardest by the pandemic, to help with a more equitable rollout. In Chicago, they were located largely in the South and West sides.

Walgreens is preparing to start administration of second doses through that program, said spokeswoman Erin Loverher. The pharmacy has been receiving about 480,000 vaccines a week through the program to distribute nationwide. About 39,300 were coming to Illinois each week.

Those numbers are expected to rise as soon as the week of March 8, as second doses become available, Loverher said. She did not have exact numbers. 

The Biden administration announced last week that it would increase doses flowing through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program to 2 million from 1 million. It said Tuesday it would bump that up by another 100,000 doses this week. 

Nationally, the Biden administration is partnering with 21 pharmacy chains, including CVS, Walmart and Jewel-Osco. Walgreens was the only chain in Illinois and Chicago. However, Osco Drug Pharmacy was recently added in Chicago. 

Only people over age 65 or who work in a front-line essential job are eligible for the vaccine in Illinois. Later this week, some parts of Illinois plan to start vaccinating those with underlying conditions, as well.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said today that Illinois expects to receive at least 100,000 doses per day by mid-March, bringing the state closer to widespread availability. Illinois is currently able to administer about 60,000 shots a day, but expects that to increase.

One in seven Illinoisans have gotten their first dose of the vaccine, Pritzker said. Authorized COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require two doses, while a new vaccine from Johnson & Johnson being reviewed by the FDA is a single-dose shot.

According to the latest state data, more than 590,000 Illinois residents—4.6 percent of the population—have been fully vaccinated. 

As of Feb. 16, one in 10 Chicago residents had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Stephanie Goldberg contributed.