Mercedes-Benz Stadium Named Mass Vaccination Site: White House

ATLANTA — Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be the next mass vaccination site, White House officials said Friday.

The White House will partner with Georgia and FEMA to open the new community vaccination center at the Downtown Atlanta stadium able to deliver 6,000 shots a day, or approximately 42,000 a week — over a two-month period, federal officials announced Friday.

The site could open in the next two weeks, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting.

During Friday’s White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing, Andy Slavitt said the Atlanta Falcons stadium in Downtown Atlanta and the Wolfstein Center at Cleveland State University would open to underserved communities.

“Both of these sites sit in neighborhoods hit hard by the pandemic and are well known in the community,” said Slavitt, the acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

He said the plan for the stadium will begin by “adjusting to the needs of the community,” addressing, in particular, concerns that some residents of Fulton County without cars

Slavitt said considerations like providing transportation to those eligible, whether or not the need exists to set up mobile vans or clinics, and how appointments are reserved will be made before the stadium opens as a vaccination site.

“We’re going to make sure all of those things are packaged neatly so that it is easier for people, particularly those who have a harder time trying to get there and get vaccinated,” he said.