CLICK HERE if you’re viewing on a mobile device.
The roughly 500 people inoculated at the Eastmont Town Center on Monday and Tuesday received the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, which is being supplied by Alameda County Public Health Department.
Caretakers, educators, emergency service workers, farmworkers, health care workers and other eligible walk-ups over the age of 65 who arrive between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. until Friday, March 5, will be expected to return in about 21 days to this site or another for their second and final dose of the vaccine.
Brenda Yamashita, the county public health department’s Director of Chronic Disease, said the goal of this Coliseum mass vaccination off-shoot site is to meet underserved communities closer to home.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to get the county vaccinated for those who want it and for those who don’t, we understand they want to wait a little. We want to talk to them, we’ll answer any questions to help them make their decisions,” said Yamashita, a 20-year veteran of the health department. “We haven’t had a pandemic like this in 100 years so this is new for all of us and we’re just doing our best to make sure it comes out well.”
At least two more vaccination sites run by the county health department include Fremont High School in Oakland and the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton. The Fremont High School site is open Thursday through Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Alameda County Fairgrounds site is open Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Those sites are operated by the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency and Public Health Department.
The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum site is open seven days a week and operated by state and federal government agencies, including Federal Emergency Management Agency, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, CalFire, California Highway Patrol and the U.S. Forest and National Park services.
Officials at the Eastmont Town Center site boasted cranking out about 40 vaccinations an hour depending on demand and as many as 400 in a day. Jeffery Nichols, a CalFire SCU Fire Captain helping operate the East Oakland site, received the Moderna vaccine.
“It’s just like any other vaccination: Needle poke, come back … my case I had Moderna, came back 28 days, got a second shot,” Nichols said.
People who are vaccinated at mobile sites such as the Eastmont Town Center location wait 15 to 30 minutes after being inoculated for safety reasons.
Correction: A previous version of this story reported county-operated vaccination sites open seven days a week. Vaccination site hours reported above have since been updated.
