VACCINATION: City plans peak week – 30,000 shots

This week, the city says it’ll be administering the highest number of vaccine doses of any week since it started vaccinating people in January – 30,000. That includes 8,000 at Lumen Field tomorrow, its biggest day since opening last month. And the West Seattle hub at Southwest Athletic Complex is giving almost 6,000 shots of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week; the city’s update says that will be done “with a focus on critical workers.” So we asked mayoral spokesperson Kelsey Nyland how they are carrying out that focus. She replied, “Through our notification list, we have the ability to be as broad or as targeted as we want with registrations. For Johnson & Johnson, we wanted to focus in on critical workers for whom it would be difficult to identify – because of their work schedule – a concrete time to schedule a second appointment. So we sent West Seattle registration links first to construction, food service, manufacturing, and restaurant workers, and then we sent it to public transit/rideshare drivers, social workers, and homeless shelter staff.” Eligibility barriers fall next week, when everyone 16 and up becomes eligible in our state on Thursday, April 15th. Meantime, to get a notification from the city when it adds appointments, get on the list here or call the city’s Customer Service Bureau at 206-684-2489 Monday through Saturday, between 8 am and 5 pm. The city efforts, also including mobile teams, are just part of the local vaccination availabilities, which also involve health-care providers and pharmacies. We include links in our nightly pandemic-news roundups every night (here’s the roundup from last night).

17 Replies to "VACCINATION: City plans peak week - 30,000 shots"

  • Chemist April 6, 2021 (5:44 pm)

    Grr on the focus not including people with two or more underlying conditions at the athletic complex.  It has been telling me there’s one appointment available all day but let’s you go through all the data entry before showing a calendar with no available times for me…..  

    • winniegirl April 6, 2021 (7:13 pm)

      If you’re still looking I had the best luck with the CHI locations in Burien and Federal Way for scheduling.  It’s a bit of a trek, but they had lots to choose from one I made appts.  Also, Pharmaca in the junction.  I was never able to get an appt from a city run site.

      • DumplingGirl April 6, 2021 (9:55 pm)

        I agree, I had luck getting mine at Pharmaca. I never heard back from the city, even though I’ve been on their waiting list. 

    • Beth A Bakeman April 6, 2021 (7:31 pm)

      Walgreens in several locations continues to show availability for appointments. I’d recommend checking them out if you’re having a hard time finding a spot.

    • AJP April 7, 2021 (1:52 pm)

      I got a J&J from Walgreens for my two underlying conditions eligibility. 

  • Bandana April 6, 2021 (9:09 pm)

    I assumed the city was notifying waitlist people first come, first serve. 

    • Chemist April 6, 2021 (9:34 pm)

      I don’t think the city vaccination doses are using the same eligibility criteria as the State of WA phase guidelines, considering 55% PoC.  Per today’s KOMO article about these 30k J&J doses –

      These vaccinations have occurred at 88 adult family homes, 90 affordable housing buildings with seniors and people with disabilities, 15 pop-ups, four permanent supportive housing buildings, and the four city-affiliated fixed vaccination sites. Roughly 55 percent of those vaccinated by the city identify as Black, indigenous or people of color.

  • Rb April 6, 2021 (9:21 pm)

    I am still not sold on restaurant workers being essential. It’s nice to dine at a restaurant instead of doing takeout or delivery, but not essential. 

    • 22blades April 6, 2021 (11:14 pm)

      My employer does not allow cooking at my workplace. I have a sneaky suspicion that many other workplaces are the same.

    • Mark April 7, 2021 (7:06 am)

      “Essential” is not about the customer/you, it’s about the worker. Restaurant workers cannot work remotely and will, in the course of a single workday, encounter at close range multiple people from outside their homes who are by and large unmasked. 

    • Foop April 7, 2021 (8:47 am)

      Yet service employees who want to not be homeless have to suffer a large swath of the population who feel the need to dine in and not wear their mask when servers approach, they take this risk constantly, day in and day out with no hazard pay, and service industry is pretty important for our overall economy, remember the USA is all about profits over people.

    • Andrea April 7, 2021 (8:51 am)

      RB – It may not be “essential” but folks who work in that industry are exposed to many many people every day that they work. This is compared to folks to work in an environment where they are not exposed to many many people when they show up to work or who can limit the exposure.My husbands job may not be essential but he is highly exposed every day he goes to work and serves the folks who choose to dine in.Yes it is nice to dine in a restaurant and we as customers have that choice – fair point. You seem to be forgetting however that people working at the restaurants the customers choose to dine in do not really have a choice around being exposed. They rely on the income to support their families so not working is most often not an option.

    • David B April 7, 2021 (1:06 pm)

      Every job is essential to the person who relies on that income to survive. Show some compassion.

  • CAM April 7, 2021 (9:03 am)

    I don’t understand why the government is not prioritizing the J&J shots specifically for those individuals who it will be most challenging to schedule two appointments for. People who are in shelters or living in their vehicles. People in jails, etc. These individuals are at heightened risk due to their living circumstances and often have numerous health conditions that could make them at higher risk for complications from COVID yet they haven’t been prioritized at all. 

  • Shambles April 7, 2021 (10:20 am)

    I’ve had several friends register for the city waitlist and be pleasantly surprised to get contacted within a short timeframe. They report that they got an email confirmation, drove to site, waited a few minutes, received vaccine. Myself, I found an appointment through Walgreens but in another part of the city.

  • trickycoolj April 7, 2021 (3:56 pm)

    Well that explains why they didn’t contact my dad even if he works in Seattle/King County. I couldn’t decide which box to check for him: 60-64, manufacturing, or 2 underlying conditions because he checks all of them. Unfortunately they ask for *home* zip code in his case in rural Pierce so they never ever contacted him. Finally hunted down a pharmacy appointment for him because TPCHD was so flakey with their revolving mass sites. 

Sorry, comment time is over.