San Francisco ramps up vaccination effort with new neighborhood sites

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco is expanding its network of neighborhood COVID-19 vaccination sites to coincide with the expanded statewide eligibility for everyone 16 and older on April 15. 

SF Mayor London Breed on Thursday announced the opening of the city's fourth neighborhood vaccination site as part of an equity strategy to ensure low-barrier vaccine access. 

The new Mission District site, located at the Local 261 Union building at 3271 18th Street, is operated in partnership with the Latino Task Force. It is one of three neighborhood sites opening in the next three weeks. 

The new site is planned to be open Thursdays through Saturdays from 11:00 a.m to 6:00 p.m. The site will serve people 16 and older who live in priority ZIP codes and will have an initial capacity of 200 doses per day. 

Due to limited vaccine supply, the site is by appointment only with limited drop-in availability.

Members of the public can sign up for an appointment in person at the 18th St. site and several other sites throughout the Mission including: 

• Mission testing site at 24th and Mission, Wednesday – Sunday, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Unidos en Salud at 24th and Capp, Sunday-Wednesday, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Mission Hub at 701 Alabama Street on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m.

You can also email LatinoTaskForceSF@gmail.com with any questions.  

In a statement, the Mayor acknowledged, ""The Latino community in San Francisco has been hit hard by COVID-19." City health officials said the Latino population is testing COVID positive at 2.3 times higher than the general San Francisco population. 

"Getting people vaccinated quickly, along with all the other steps we’ve been doing for more than a year now like mask wearing and social distancing, will help us keep each other safe and end this pandemic. This site makes it even easier for people to get vaccinated, right in their own neighborhood," Breed said. 

It's the Mission's second neighborhood site. The first site at 24th and Capp streets opened in February in partnership with UCSF and the Latino Task Force. 

SF Director of Public Health Dr. Grant Colfax pointed to how the Latino Task Force partnership can build trust and promote equity.

"A neighborhood vaccine site can be successful in drawing members of our community who may not normally feel comfortable going to a traditional healthcare setting to get the vaccine," he said. 

On April 19, a site in Visitacion Valley/Sunnydale at 1099 Sunnydale Avenue, which had been previously run by Bayview Child Health will expand from one to three days a week.

On April 28, another neighborhood vaccine access site opens at 50 Broad Street for the Oceanview, Merced Heights, Ingleside neighborhoods, which is home to many Latino, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander residents. 

Mobile vaccine sites have expanded to Visitacion Valley, Treasure Island, Chinatown and other neighborhoods with the highest infection rates like the Tenderloin. 

The Tenderloin received its first drop-in vaccine clinic Thursday at Glide SF, located at 330 Ellis Street. Supervisor Matt Haney on social media, posted the clinic will have 200 shots of the Moderna vaccine available every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The site's target population is neighborhood residents and workers.  

The city says across these efforts, they are averaging over 11,000 doses daily. As many as 60% of San Franciscans 16 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 38% of the same age group have been fully vaccinated. 

For the full announcement on SF's neighborhood network sites, click here. 

You can find more SF COVID-19 vaccine information here. 

And to sign up for an appointment through the state, check myturn.ca.gov.