Lumen Field Mass Vaccination Site Opens Saturday

SEATTLE — Seattle will open Washington's most ambitious coronavirus vaccination site Saturday at the Lumen Field Event Center, embarking on a mission to vaccinate more than 20,000 people every day in the months ahead. At current supply levels, the new mass vaccination center aims to administer about 5,000 doses through appointments available over two or three days per week.

As federal allocations increase and eligibility tiers expand, the facility will ramp up operations to meet the demand. The ultimate goal is to immunize up to 22,000 people every day of the week — a figure that is nearly half the current daily average across the entire state.

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Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan joined Gov. Jay Inslee and King County Executive Dow Constantine to make the announcement on-site Wednesday morning, standing in the same spot they once toured as a field hospital.

"A little less than a year ago, we were in this space as we were setting up an army hospital...as we faced this virus in the earliest days with fear and trepidation and uncertainty, not knowing what was coming, not knowing how we would get through this," Durkan said Wednesday. "It has been such a difficult year for everyone in our city and our region. We have had too many people get sick, families have lost loved ones, empty places at the dinner table. We've seen the devastating impact on our economy, our workers, our small businesses. Through it all, we have persevered and continued, and today we are thrilled to say and show that hope is really here and on the horizon."

The Seattle site, created in partnership with Swedish and First & Goal, will be staffed through a rotating list of thousands of volunteers and have 600 people working each shift at its peak, the Seattle Times reported. Appointments are required and open to all eligible Washington adults — not just Seattle residents — and can be scheduled online.

"At peak capacity, this will be the largest civilian-run vaccination site in the country," Durkan said. "With Lumen Field, we are taking an enormous step forward in reaching our goal to be one of the first cities in the country to reach that 70 percent threshold of vaccinations."

The governor championed the new site as a major component of Washington's growing vaccination efforts, allowing the state to quickly scale up as more doses arrive.

"Yesterday, Washington was named, for the second year in a row, the best state to live in the United States, and there's a reason for that," Inslee said. "It's because we believe in science, and we believe in working together. Because we're working together, we're going to vaccinate Washingtonians like crazy at Lumen Field. The Sounders, the Seahawks understand momentum; I'm pleased to tell you Washington state's got momentum big-time in the fight against COVID."

Earlier on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said the U.S. would double its order of the newly-approved Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine, boosting the nation's supply forecast to have enough doses of the three vaccines to supply 500 million people by summer.

"We are capable of doing this," Inslee said. "The federal government is helping, Joe Biden is helping us big-time by increasing productivity. You give us the doses Mr. President, we'll give you the vaccinations."

In Washington, weekly federal allocations are gradually increasing, and deliveries scheduled for the last full week of March should include more than 327,000 doses.

Washington's current vaccine eligibility groups include:

• Health care workers
• High-risk first responders
• Residents of long-term care facilities
• K-12 educators, school staff and child care workers
• All people over 65 years-old
• All people over 50 years-old who live in a multigenerational household

Washington is slated to move to the next vaccine eligibility tier beginning March 17, and expanding to include all people ages 16 and above and with two or more comorbidities by April 26.

Watch the full Wednesday news conference below: