(CHICAGO) — It was reopening day at a greater Chicago mass vaccination site Tuesday, as local health officials bring previously closed locations back online to meet renewed demand during the omicron surge.

Cook County closed the last of its six suburban mass vaccination sites six months ago due to declining demand and as vaccine administrations shifted more to pharmacies and doctors’ offices. But with renewed interest in recent weeks, county officials have been encouraged to reopen several of the sites operated by Cook County Health.

“With the surge in omicron, we’ve actually seen an increase in interest in, particularly, boosters,” Dr. Gregory Huhn, Cook County Health’s vaccine coordinator and an infectious disease physician, told ABC News. “We believed that we would need this type of opportunity again to really meet that demand, as people recognize the importance of vaccination in combating against omicron.”

About 80% of Cook County residents have received at least one vaccine dose, while 40% of those eligible have gotten their booster, Huhn said.

A majority — around 75% — of Cook County Health’s patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 are unvaccinated, and that rate is higher for those in the intensive care unit and on ventilators, according to Huhn.

“We will have breakthrough infections, we know that,” Huhn said. “But with the booster, we’re able to generate enough antibodies to protect people against the progression of their infection and disease, to keep them out of the hospital and keep them from dying.”

On Tuesday, the first of three mass vaccination sites reopening across the county started administering doses again. There were a couple hundred appointments scheduled, and more walk-ins.

Stephen Gallardo showed up to the Forest Park site after trying more than a week to get his booster elsewhere, he told Chicago ABC station WLS. “Most places are booked for a while,” he told the station.

The other two sites are scheduled to open Thursday and Saturday, with all three offering weekend hours.

Local leaders are hoping the weekends will draw out residents who have not yet gotten their first dose.

“We know that certain populations have not availed themselves of the vaccines, so what we hope to see is church congregations coming on Sundays to get vaccines here in Forest Park,” Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins told reporters Tuesday.

All three sites are in former big-box stores, which have provided a large amount of open space to easily maneuver patients from station to station, Huhn said.

“We find that this type of environment is really highly conducive to our vaccine operations and efficiency,” he said.

When the sites first opened nearly a year ago, they were partially staffed by members of the National Guard. Now, they’re relying on both Cook County Health administrators and support from nursing agencies.

The clinics will run as long as there is demand.

“We have adequate vaccine supply, we have the staff,” Huhn said. “We really want to make it easy and accessible for everybody to get the vaccine that they need.”

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(NEW YORK) — Recent attacks on Jewish institutions — including the 10-hour-long hostage situation at a synagogue in Texas on Jan. 15 — have cast a dark shadow on the simple act of walking into a Jewish institution.

The faith-based attacks have forced community leaders to prioritize security and safety precautions to maintain their ability to pray, congregate and practice their faith, Eric Fingerhut, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, told ABC News.

“This is not new,” Fingerhut said. “This has been a particularly violent period of attacks on Jewish institutions and on Jewish community.”

On Jan. 15, an armed suspect that claimed to have bombs took a rabbi and three others hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who was held hostage, told reporters that his training with the Jewish-led security training organization Secure Community Network helped get his congregants out safely.

Since antisemitism is still present in the U.S., protecting one’s congregation is key, community leaders say. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tracked 2,024 antisemitic incidents in 2020, the third-highest year on record since the organization began tracking these incidents in 1979.

Faith-based communities will “likely” continue to be the target of violence “by both domestic violent extremists and those inspired by foreign terrorists,” according to a note sent on Monday to law enforcement officials and houses of worship nationwide by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.

“The fact that he’d been trained like so many members of the clergy and other communal leaders in active shooter drills, in hostage crises, and how to deal with terrorist scenarios unfolding in your synagogue … it’s actually not a surprise,” ADL’s CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt told ABC News.

“We are in an environment where, whether you run a synagogue or a JCC [Jewish community center] or a day school or a summer camp, you need to take action and be vigilant because of the very real threat of violence,” Greenblatt said.

The Secure Community Network is a national security initiative composed of former high-level law enforcement officials that work across 146 federations and more than 300 individual groups. They train religious leaders in threat and vulnerability assessments, training and drill programs.

Brad Orsini, the organization’s senior national security advisor, said that in Texas, leaders were taught basic situational awareness: what to look for, what suspicious behavior may look like. They also engaged in active shooter training, countering an active threat training and life-saving training to stop bleeding.

“We really teach that community the necessary tools to stay alive for three to five minutes prior to law enforcement getting there,” Orsini told ABC News. “Law enforcement is not there when an incident happens so we need to know those initial steps to keep ourselves alive.”

The organization said it also provides a 24/7 analyst who is on alert for security threats from across the country.

Security and safety training are beginning to become a part of daily life as Jewish leaders, Fingerhut said. He said they’re doing what it takes to protect the community’s ability to practice their faith rightfully and freely.

“The basis of our religion is the community,” Fingerhut said. “If people are afraid to take their kids to a JCC or to summer camp or afraid to go to synagogue to pray with their community, that would be the ultimate tragedy.”

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(NEW YORK) — A series of “missed opportunities” and an overreliance on false statements made by Robert Durst delayed his prosecution for the murder of his then-wife, Kathleen “Kathie” Durst, by almost 40 years, Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah said Wednesday.

Rocah’s office released a 13-page report that probed the entire scope of the investigation and found both police and prosecutors relied too much on Robert Durst’s alibis that his wife was last seen in Manhattan before she disappeared from their South Salem home on Jan. 31, 1982. Her body has never been discovered.

Even though Robert Durst’s claims were refuted by other evidence, investigators continued their search for Kathie Durst in New York City instead of Westchester, the report said.

“In short, it appears that the initial investigation suffered to some degree from ‘tunnel vision’ — having a theory of a case, which is maintained even when there are red flags that should cause those initial theories to be questioned,” the report said.

New York investigators uncovered evidence that showed Kathie Durst was the victim of domestic violence by Robert Durst before she was killed. Neighbors at the Dursts’ Manhattan residence told investigators at the time that Kathleen Durst had knocked on their window seeking protection from her husband, who allegedly beat her and threatened to shoot her.

Neighbors of his South Salem home refuted Robert Durst’s claims that he stopped by their house for drinks after he dropped off Kathie at a train station the night of her disappearance.

“And yet focus of the investigation remained guided by Durst’s version of events that he had driven her to the train to New York City on the night she disappeared,” Rocah said at a news conference Wednesday.

Susan Berman, Durst’s friend and unofficial spokeswoman, also gave questionable statements to the police suggesting Kathie had run off with another man, the report said.

Berman was murdered in 2000 before she was set to speak with police for a follow-up investigation into Kathie’s disappearance. Robert Durst was arrested in 2015 and charged in connection with Berman’s death, following the airing of the final episode of the HBO documentary “The Jinx,” where he was recorded on a hot mic allegedly incriminating himself.

Robert Durst was convicted in Berman’s death last year and was sentenced to life in prison in October. Shortly after the sentencing, Rocah’s office charged Durst with Kathie Durst’s murder.

Robert Durst died of natural causes earlier this month in custody.

Kathie Durst’s family wasn’t invited to Rocah’s press conference, according to family attorney Robert Abrams, who added that they’re calling for Rocah’s resignation. She was elected as DA in November 2020.

“There have been numerous individuals, including members of the Durst family, that have knowingly and intentionally participated in a criminal conspiracy to help Robert Durst avoid prosecution,” Abrams said in a statement. “Through her misrepresentations and omissions, DA Rocah must now be considered part of the cover-up.”

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