City of Seattle Has Administered More Than 230,000 Vaccinations as a Provider; 48 Percent of Those Vaccinated by City Identify As BIPOC, 15 Percent More Than Seattle Population
SODO to Serve as Sole Fixed City of Seattle Vaccination Site Through Summer
SEATTLE (May 26, 2021) – Mayor Jenny A. Durkan today announced that now that more than 76 percent of Seattle’s residents 12 and older have begun the vaccination process, and more than 60 percent are fully vaccinated, the City of Seattle’s fixed vaccination sites at the Lumen Field Event Center, North Seattle College, Rainier Beach, and West Seattle will all end their operations in June. The Lumen Field Event Center, Rainier Beach, and West Seattle vaccination sites will continue to administer first and second doses until their final days of operation; and first and second doses will be administered at the Seattle Fire Department (SFD) Testing and Vaccination Site in SODO. SFD will also continue mobile and pop-up efforts in the coming weeks.
“Since December, the City of Seattle has been focused on ensuring an accessible and equitable vaccine delivery for our residents and workers,” said Mayor Durkan. “In the months that followed, we became the first EMS agency to administer vaccine in Washington state, we launched the largest civilian-run mass vaccination site in the country, and we delivered vaccines far more equitably than other providers across the city and country. Now that the vast majority of Seattleites have begun the vaccination process, we are able to safely reopen and recover as a city – without the need for our fixed sites. These successes were only possible because of the hard work of our City employees, and the partnerships we forged across government, health care, and community.”
To-date, the City of Seattle has administered more than 230,000 vaccinations, including more than 128,000 first doses. Forty-eight percent of those vaccinated by the City identify as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color (BIPOC), which is 15 percent more than the BIPOC share of Seattle’s population. Compared to all other major American cities, Seattle’s vaccination rate is only second behind San Francisco, which does not yet publicly track vaccinations of 12 – 15 year-olds.
The Community Vaccination Site at the Lumen Field Event Center, which opened March 13 as the largest civilian-run vaccination site in the country, will cease operations on June 12. Since its opening, Lumen Field has administered more than 97,000 vaccinations, including nearly 51,000 first doses. Forty-one percent of those vaccinated at Lumen Field identify as BIPOC communities, compared to 33 percent of the broader Seattle population. Lumen Field, operated by the department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS), Swedish, and First & Goal Inc., had robust language access and accessibility support, and served as a resource for residents throughout the city and county.
“On behalf of all our Swedish caregivers, I want to share how honored we have been to support our community in this historic vaccination effort,” said Swedish CEO Dr. Guy Hudson. “Between vaccinating our caregivers, our community mass vaccination site at Seattle U, our mobile clinics and at Lumen, we have administered 201,285 vaccinations, and most importantly we have approached this work with an equitable lens focusing on vaccinating communities hit the hardest by COVID-19.”
“When FAS got the charge to stand up the City’s mass vaccination site, our teams were redeployed from their jobs as warehousers and business inspectors, and in fleets and accountants. They came together and applied their skills, learned new ones, and showed up when their City needed it most to launch the largest civilian-led mass vaccination site in the country,” said Calvin W. Goings, director of the City’s department of Finance and Administrative Services, which, with Swedish, operates the Community Vaccination Site at Lumen Field and has provided nearly 100,000 vaccines. “Their work now represents the single largest mobilization of City resources in our lifetime and I couldn’t possibly be prouder of FAS, our partners at Swedish, the incredible community of volunteers, and our residents who are all doing their part to help Seattle recover.”
On January 14, Seattle Fire became the first Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agency in Washington state to administer COVID-19 vaccines. The SFD Community Vaccination Hubs at Rainier Beach and West Seattle will cease operations on June 23 and June 9, respectively. UW Medicine’s testing trailers will remain open at each hub, even after vaccinations end. Since their opening, the SFD hubs have administered nearly 107,000 vaccinations combined, including more than 60,000 first doses. Thirty-nine percent of those vaccinated at the West Seattle Hub identify as BIPOC, and 57 percent of those vaccinated at the Rainier Beach Hub identify as BIPOC. Both hubs served as true neighborhood resources, with West Seattle predominantly serving the Delridge and West Seattle neighborhoods, and Rainier Beach predominantly serving the Beacon Hill, Rainier Beach, and Rainier Valley neighborhoods.
“Over the course of the pandemic, the work of the Seattle Fire Department has evolved tremendously. From standing up a COVID-19 testing site for first responders, to conducting more than 756,000 COVID-19 tests at our four community testing sites, to administering more than 133,500 vaccinations, our work has pivoted to best serve the Seattle community,” said Fire Chief Harold Scoggins. “I am so proud of the hard work of the firefighters, paramedics and professional staff who work for the SFD and our partners at AMR, UW Medicine and Swedish who have also worked tirelessly for a healthier Seattle. We are a resilient community, and I feel hopeful about ramping down our efforts now that a vast majority of our population is vaccinated.”
“As soon as the City of Seattle became a vaccine provider, OIRA was one of the first departments called upon by the Mayor’s Office to ensure that vulnerable immigrant and refugee residents could easily and quickly access available vaccines,” said Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) director Cuc Vu. “Our staff was proud to collaborate both across City departments and with community-based organizations to help ensure that equity, cultural competency, and language accessibility were all integrated throughout Seattle’s evolving vaccine campaign. And I am proud to say that our work spoke for itself, as 48 percent of those vaccinated by the City identified as BIPOC, 15 percent more than the BIPOC share of Seattle’s population. Truly, ‘immigrants, we get the job done!’”
The SFD Mobile Vaccination Teams (MVT) will serve as the City’s primary vaccination effort through the summer. To-date, the SFD MVTs have conducted more than 26,500 vaccinations across Seattle at Adult Family Homes, permanent supportive housing buildings, sports games, breweries, and affordable housing buildings for seniors and people with disabilities. Fifty-nine percent of those vaccinated by the MVTs identify as BIPOC. The MVTs are a proven strategy to reach groups disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, including elders, BIPOC communities, and youth. To ensure its efforts are successful, SFD works with the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) and Department of Neighborhoods (DON) to partner with community organizations that represent historically underserved groups. Over the summer, the MVTs will focus on delivering the vaccine to Seattle youth, who are currently underrepresented in the countywide vaccination effort.
For more information, including how to get vaccinated today, visit the City’s vaccination website at www.seattle.gov/vaccine. The site contains vaccination information in seven languages, and in-language assistance is also available over the phone. In addition, OIRA recently launched a series of in-language helplines to answer questions and/or find vaccination opportunities for immigrant and refugee residents who are limited English proficient and/or have limited access to the internet. More information on the OIRA Vaccine Community Helplines is available here.
Please continue to follow all public health guidance, including indoor masking for vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and visit this website from Public Health – Seattle & King County for more information.