Drive-thru vaccination clinic for phase 1A and those 75 and older opens at the fairgrounds
Quick Take
A drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination clinic opens for eligible people at the Watsonville Fairgrounds this week
Santa Cruz County is opening a drive-thru vaccination clinic at the Watsonville Fairgrounds this week that health officials hope will put a dent in the county’s vaccine backlog.
The site is kicking off with a test run of a few hundred people today and then will ramp up throughout the week.
County health services agency director Mimi Hall said in a press conference last week that, once it’s fully operational, the site should be able to administer 1,000 vaccines each day.
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The site is using a scheduling system powered by Safeway, and the county’s goal is to complete phase 1a and begin distributing doses to the first tier of phase 1b — those 75 and older — by the end of the week.
Those eligible for vaccination (phase 1a health care workers or those 75 and over) can sign up here.
The goal of this clinic is to reach people who are uninsured or otherwise unable to receive vaccines through a health system such as Kaiser Permanente, Sutter/PAMF, or Dignity Health. Patients of those health systems should try to schedule vaccine appointments through their primary care physicians, county officials say.