COVID-19 Vaccination Megasite Opens At Oakland Coliseum

OAKLAND, CA — A COVID-19 vaccination supersite capable of providing 6,000 shots a day opened at the Oakland Coliseum Tuesday.

Residents must make an appointment in advance to get a vaccination at California’s MyTurn application.

More residents are now eligible for the vaccine. The MyTurn app will prompt applicants to answer a list of questions to determine if they are eligible to get a vaccine now or have to wait.

National Guard troops will staff the supersite, a joint effort of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It will open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week and is scheduled to remain open for a minimum of eight weeks.

The Coliseum site and a second one at California State University, Los Angeles, which also opened Tuesday, are beta sites for the rest of the country. The federal government plans 100 vaccination supersites nationwide.

The federal government has vaccines dedicated for the supersites, so they should not be plagued by the same shortages and uncertainty that county and local sites have struggled with before now.

Local and federal agencies are rushing to vaccinate as many people as possible to halt the coronavirus pandemic and reopen schools and businesses.

“There are only seven jurisdictions in the world that have administered more doses of the vaccine than the state of California,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday, adding that some 6.3 million doses of the vaccine have now been administered.

California’s coronavirus holiday surge continues to ease. “One month ago today, on Jan. 16, this state reported 11.4 percent positivity rate,” Newsom said. “Today, it’s down to 3.5 percent positivity. One month ago today on Jan. 16, we reported 40,600 cases of COVID-19 — today, 5,600 cases.”

Even before the opening of the Coliseum supersite, more local residents were reporting success in their quest to get vaccinated. Jane Sullwold said in an Alameda Patch Neighbor Post that the MyTurn app worked like a charm.

She said her husband “typed in our Alameda zip code, and was offered the Moscone Center for our vaccines. He was able to make an appointment for the very next day. The experience was incredibly easy: took about 25 minutes to drive in; found easy street parking on Folsom Street around the block; and every single staff person (there were hundreds) was extremely cheerful and helpful. We arrived at 3:45 pm and left at 4:20 pm -- amazingly efficient. When we made the initial appointment we were also given an appointment in early March for the follow-up shot. Highly recommended!”

It's worth noting that while local health department officials emphasize that vaccine sites are for county residents only, the state-run MyTurn assigned Alameda County residents to a San Francisco site.

Residents who need transportation to the Coliseum can catch a free ride from AC Transit. Those who live farther away can get a free $7 ride ticket from BART, along with a free shuttle from AC Transit.

A new vaccination site at the Alameda County Fairgrounds also opened Tuesday.