San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed and Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax today outlined the City’s plan to create a network of vaccination sites to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible when doses become more readily available. In partnership with the health care providers in San Francisco, which are receiving the majority of the vaccine doses from the state, the City will facilitate the quick and efficient delivery of vaccines through high-volume vaccine sites as well as community-based sites. 

The providers partnering with the City include Kaiser Permanente, UCSF Health, Dignity Health, Sutter Health/California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and the Department of Public Health, which provides healthcare to the uninsured and underinsured. The City has also created a vaccination notification website where, starting Tuesday, January 19, people who live and work in San Francisco can sign up to be notified when they become eligible under state guidance to receive the vaccine.  

The goal of this initiative is to ensure all health care providers in San Francisco are fully-prepared to facilitate wide-scale vaccinations for those who live and work in San Francisco as soon as health care providers receive sufficient vaccine allocations from the state and federal government. The sites will be created to scale-up capacity as vaccine supply increases. Once the vaccine locations are fully operational, pending vaccine supply, the city has a goal of facilitating 10,000 vaccine doses per day.

“We are doing everything we can to help get people vaccinated as quickly as possible,” said Mayor Breed. “The vaccine is the most important tool we have to end this pandemic once and for all, and getting people protected from this virus is our top priority. By creating these vaccination locations with our private healthcare partners and continuing our efforts to serve the highest-need residents by bringing the vaccine to them, we can all work together to move the vaccine more quickly as supply increases. We need more vaccines now, and we will be ready when they do arrive.”

“We have begun the most ambitious vaccine distribution effort in our City’s history,” said Dr. Grant Colfax. “This is a historic and hopeful moment for all of us. We are working with all of our health partners to ensure an effective and equitable distribution. We have been planning for months now to be ready to vaccinate as many people as fast as possible when the vaccine is more readily available from the federal and state government.”

COVID-19 Vaccination Sites

In partnership with health care providers, DPH, and COVID-19 Command Center, the City will establish high-volume vaccination sites at several locations. These sites will provide a unified place for health care providers to set-up vaccination stations and vaccinate people who are eligible. Each site will have space for all of the City’s health care providers to have vaccination strategies and create coordinated, centralized vaccine locations that people can go to regardless of their insurer.

The selection of these high-volume vaccine sites is informed by the rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalizations, and deaths in San Francisco. The highest rates of infection are in the Southeast sector of the city, and the City has selected the locations of vaccine sites so they are easily accessible to the residents of these neighborhoods. 

The City is working with the providers to ensure these facilities have everything in place to activate and begin offering vaccinations as soon as they receive sufficient vaccine supply. The sites will open and scale based on the amount of vaccine doses health care providers receive.

• SoMa: Moscone Center. 
• OMI/Sunnyside: City College of San Francisco (Main Campus).
• Bayview: The SF Market (San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market).

In addition to the high-volume vaccination sites that will serve everyone, the City and health care providers will augment COVID-19 vaccination in high impacted communities with pop-up vaccine sites, DPH’s community clinics, and other safety-net clinics for the uninsured and underserved in neighborhoods such as Chinatown, Mission, Western Addition, and Bayview. 

The City is also working with One Medical, Safeway, and Walgreens to deliver vaccines as doses become available. Additionally, the City has been working with partners to develop mobile vaccination teams to deploy to hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations. The City is working with community partners to best understand where and how to embed these teams within communities to reach the populations most at risk of disease.

Additionally, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFGH) will begin scaling up vaccination of its patients this weekend. ZSFGH serves approximately 110,000 inpatient and outpatient clients annually at their hospitals and clinics.

Vaccine Notification Webpage

Mayor Breed also announced the City has created a webpage for people who live and work in San Francisco to enter their information and be notified once they are eligible to be vaccinated. Starting Tuesday, January 19, people who live and work in San Francisco can sign-up for vaccine notification at sf.gov/vaccinenotify.

“Hospitals throughout San Francisco look forward to partnering with local public health officials and other health care providers to vaccinate as many people as possible, once there are sufficient and reliable allocations of the vaccine,” said Bryan Bucklew, President and CEO, Hospital Council Northern and Central California.

“As part of our commitment to getting the COVID-19 vaccine to all of our members and communities as soon as possible, we are working with counties and state leaders on expanding vaccination locations,” said Carrie Owen Plietz, FACHE, President, Kaiser Permanente Northern California. “We are pleased also to be working together with other healthcare providers to create these mass vaccination sites, and are anticipating opening quickly and as soon as vaccine supplies are available.”

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