Illinois has now administered more than 1 million COVID-19 vaccinations, but racial disparities persist and demand continues to far outpace the vaccine supply, which has made landing an appointment an often difficult task for those eligible for a shot.

The city of Chicago on Tuesday started promoting a national website, www.zocdoc.com/vaccine, that allows people to find and schedule COVID-19 vaccination appointments.

But while publicizing the site Chicago public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady also noted that the city is only receiving about 40,000 first doses this week, or enough to vaccinate about 5,700 people per day.

When a reporter noted that Zocdoc’s February appointments appear to be already booked up, she said that was normal and residents should register their emails for notifications on future availability.

“Like I said, very limited vaccine appointments, and as we receive more vaccine, we’ll be able to be making more appointments available,” Arwady said.

More than 3.2 million people are eligible for a shot under phase 1b of the state’s vaccination rollout, which covers a number of essential workers as well as people 65 and over. State officials said 32,559 vaccines were administered Monday, bringing the total number of doses to 1,028,969.

The number of Illinois residents who have been fully vaccinated — receiving both of the required two shots — is 227,362. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 44,139 doses.

The city released data from the end of January that says 58% of Chicago’s vaccine doses have been administered within seven days of shipment. But Arwady pointed out that figure is 78% if long-term care facility numbers are excluded.

In addition, racial disparities among those receiving vaccine have slightly decreased after phase 1b began, according to city data. The percentage of first doses given to Black Chicagoans went up from 15% to 19% a week ago, while Latino Chicagos are making up 20% versus 17% earlier.

But pointing to the widespread disparities experienced by minority communities since the start of the pandemic, state Sen. Jacqueline Collins on Tuesday called on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to ramp up inoculation efforts in minority neighborhoods.

“When the pandemic began, we saw disparities in infections and deaths,” Collins said. “As it continued, we saw disparities in testing and care. Now, we are seeing disparities in reaching the light at the end of the tunnel.”

An early look at vaccine data showed more residents on the North Side and lakefront areas have received the vaccine than those in South and West side neighborhoods. Health officials said the very preliminary glimpse into vaccination efforts was likely impacted affected by the location of long-term care facilities and where hospital workers tend to live, but concerns of race as a major factor persist.

A spokeswoman for Pritzker said the governor has no control over vaccine distribution in the city of Chicago.

“The state health department works in close communication with the city, but the Pritzker Administration cannot direct how doses are distributed and used within the City of Chicago,” spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said in a statement. “In addition, the limited number of doses the state of Illinois receives are required to be used in areas outside the City of Chicago.”

In an effort to address the issue, Walgreens said 39,300 COVID-19 vaccine doses it expects to get each week through a federal program will go primarily to stores near “socially vulnerable and medically underserved areas” based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The doses will supplement those the pharmacy chain already receives through the Illinois Department of Public Health, a company spokeswoman said.

Separately, Walmart is among a handful of retailers administering COVID-19 vaccines, and at least 1,200 seniors and essential workers have received the vaccine at eight Chicago stores since last week, the retailer said.

Three stores in the Hermosa, West Chatham and Pullman neighborhoods are giving the vaccine in an area typically used to store online grocery orders. Those stores can vaccinate about 150 people per day. Other stores are vaccinating a smaller number of customers in store pharmacies.

The stores will offer COVID-19 vaccines through Sunday and will administer additional doses if Walmart receives morefrom health officials, said Chinni Pulluru, a senior director at Walmart Health and Wellness.

A number of Chicago-area health systems have started vaccinating patients, but they are moving at different speeds. Some hospital systems have invited all their eligible patients to make appointments, while others are focusing only on those who live in certain areas or are at the highest- risk of getting severely ill with COVID-19.

Teachers are included in phase 1b of vaccinations, and the city’s vaccine distribution has become part of a dispute between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Teachers Union over reopening schools.

Arwady on Tuesday again vouched that the city is “in a good place” regarding its teacher vaccination plan, but declined to give specifics on how many doses the Chicago Public Schools system will have by its rollout date in mid-February.

“Some of these exact numbers are still in some negotiation, and so I don’t want to speak out in details about them,” Arwady said. “But what I can tell you is that we’ve worked to really assess the percentage of eligible Chicago residents that the CPS membership makes up and we are definitely allocating — even over-allocating — vaccine to that group recognizing how important it is to get Chicago back to school.”

The www.zocdoc.com/vaccine website is run by an outside provider and will allow users to find and book appointments from some local vaccination sites including city-run mass vaccination sites and those operated by AMITA Health, Erie Family Health, Innovative Express Care and Rush University Medical Center, city officials said.

The partnership comes at no cost to the city and also will allow people to sign up to be notified when new appointments are available, Arwady said.

Despite the already disappearing slots, Richard Fine, vice president for strategy at Zocdoc, said the partnership will quell some of the anxiety over people reportedly spending hours refreshing websites or making phone calls.

“That experience is obviously frustrating for people, but it also tends to reward those with the most time and the most resources to be able to do that, and that maybe isn’t the fairest way for us to do this,” Fine said. “From the software perspective, it doesn’t have to be this way.”

State officials on Tuesday reported 2,304 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 47 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 1,130,917 and the statewide death toll to 19,306.

Tuesday’s new cases resulted from a batch of 60,899 tests. The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 3.9% as of Monday.

As of Monday night, 2,447 people in Illinois were hospitalized with COVID-19, with 533 patients in intensive care units and 265 patients on ventilators.

The state on Tuesday eased coronavirus limits in suburban Cook County, with suburban counties including DuPage and Lake set for a similar loosening of the rules on Wednesday.

But officials in Cook County officials, like those in Chicago earlier, said they plan to stick to the stricter crowd limits on dining and elsewhere, for now.

Cook County will maintain indoor dining gathering limits of up to 25 people or 25% of room capacity. Restaurants will still be allowed parties of only up to 6 people, as long as tables remain 6 feet apart. Also, indoor playgrounds and trampoline parks remain closed while museums and zoos remain limited to 25% capacity.

The move is aimed at supporting “a more gradual approach to easing mitigation measures,” county officials said in a statement.

Oak Park, Evanston, Skokie and Stickney Township have their own health departments and are not subject to Cook County public health department guidance. It was not immediately clear what they planned to do about the loosened restrictions.

Under state guides for phase four of the state’s reopening plan, which Cook County is now in, restaurants can seat parties of up to 10 people, as long as tables remain 6 feet apart. In addition, social gatherings can host up to 50 people or 50% of room capacity and some recreation facilities such as bowling alleys will be allowed to open.

The regions that cover DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties are on pace to enter phase four Wednesday, officials said. Several other regions of the state, including Chicago, moved to phase four earlier.

Tribune reporter Lauren Zumbach contributed.