California's largest vaccination site to open at Levi's Stadium
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The San Francisco 49ers and the County of Santa Clara on Friday announced the creation of they're saying will be California’s largest vaccination site at Levi’s Stadium.
In a joint statement, the team and the county said the site will open Tuesday with the initial capacity to vaccinate 5,000 people per day, with plans to increase capacity up to 15,000 people a day as vaccine supplies increase. The vaccinations will be given to Santa Clara County residents.
"We recognize the urgent need for an effective and equitable vaccination effort for our community and are proud to partner with the County of Santa Clara to bring this vaccination site online as quickly and efficiently as possible," said 49ers President Al Guido said in a statement. "We have brought every resource at our disposal to bear on this challenge to ensure members of the community we live in each and every day can be vaccinated safely and quickly."
The site will be staffed and operated by the County of Santa Clara Health System.
- Mass vaccination sites coming to Oakland Coliseum and LA
- California has few specifics on state vaccination system; rollout has been bumpy and chaotic
- More mass vaccination sites opening around Bay Area
The site will be one of many mass vaccination sites sprouting in the state. The Moscone Convention Center is opening in San Francisco on Friday, along with two other big sites in The City. San Francisco also expanded neighborhood vaccine access in the Bayview and Mission neighborhoods, and launched a new vaccination site with Safeway Pharmacy at San Francisco State University. When there are enough doses, San Francisco officials said they hope to give out 10,000 vaccination shots a day.
Philippa Newfield, who got vaccinated on Friday in San Francisco, said she hoped getting a shot would alleviate many of her fears.
"My niece is having dinner parties," she said. "I'm having nightmares."
Also this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new mass vaccination site will open at the Oakland Coliseum on Feb. 16, which will be able to vaccinate 6,000 people a day. Counties such as Sonoma and San Mateo are turning their convention centers and fairgrounds into mass vaccination sites as well.
Still, vaccinations have been in limited supply. Napa County this week said they ran out of doses and the rollout process has been choppy, inequitable and chaotic, according to both professionals and patients. It wasn't immediately clear how Santa Clara County could promise enough doses.
In an emil from the county, officials said that the Santa Clara County Public Health Department currently receives a weekly allocation from the state to allocate to local healthcare providers, community clinics, and Stanford Healthcare. Specifically, the vaccine doses for the Levi’s Stadium mass vaccination site will come from the County Health System’s allocation. The number of vaccine appointments that can be offered at Levi’s and all other sites "are dependent on how much vaccine the state allocates to our community," the county said.
KTVU's Allie Rasmus and Jesse Gary contributed to this report.