Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that the Seattle Fire Department (SFD) COVID-19 Community Testing and Vaccination Hubs in Rainier Beach and West Seattle will transition to full-time COVID vaccination hubs beginning Wednesday, March 31.
According to officials, by transitioning to these two sites into full-time vaccination hubs, the city will be able to vaccinate an additional 3,000 people per week at each location, and add an additional 6,000 vaccinations to the City’s total weekly capacity.
Transitioning the Rainier Beach and West Seattle sites to full-time vaccination hubs allows SFD to increase its vaccination capacity at each site up to 1,500 per day, as compared to 1,000 per day. To-date, the City’s Rainier Beach and West Seattle vaccination hubs have administered 16,441 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
“With the decrease in those seeking testing, I’m confident transitioning our Rainier Beach and West Seattle sites to serve as full-time vaccination hubs is the right step,” said Fire Chief Harold D. Scoggins. “This move will allow us to increase the number of people SFD can vaccinate each day, as supply allows. Seattle firefighters and paramedics and our partners at AMR continue to be honored to serve our community in this capacity.”
The demand for testing at these two sites has been continually dropping over the last six weeks and currently, Rainier Beach is administering approximately 100 COVID-19 tests each day, and West Seattle is administering approximately 200 tests each day, sometimes less. Should COVID-19 cases increase, SFD is prepared to again scale up its testing capacity. To-date, SFD’s four fixed COVID-19 testing sites have administered 683,381 tests. Rainier Beach has administered 82,725 tests, and West Seattle has administered 78,131 tests.
“When the pandemic first touched down in Seattle, the Seattle Fire Department acted quickly to create our nation-leading COVID-19 testing infrastructure, which has since been used by one in three Seattleites. Our incredible testing sites are one of the main reasons we’ve had some of the lowest COVID-19 cases of any major American city,” Durkan. “As we reach the fourth quarter of this pandemic, we can transition Rainier Beach and West Seattle to full-time vaccination hubs to significantly increase vaccine access to thousands more people. Even as more of us begin to get vaccinated, we’ll need to continue wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and following all public health guidance.”
Community-based organizations are given advance registration access to each site, but Washington State Department of Health (DOH) eligible members of the public can sign up now for the City’s vaccination appointment notification list, or they can also contact the Customer Service Bureau at 206-684-2489 from Monday through Saturday, between 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. for assistance completing this form. In-language assistance is available over the phone.
Once eligible members of the public sign up for the City’s notification list, they will receive an email notification when vaccination appointments become available at any of the City’s three fixed sites in Rainier Beach, West Seattle, and the Lumen Field Event Center.
In addition to health care partners who have increased testing, the City currently has Curative kiosks in West Seattle and other testing locations to the north and south of Rainier Beach with many appointments available. The City also continues to operate its COVID-19 drive-through testing sites in Aurora and SoDo, and many appointments are available each week.
