Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, home of the San Francisco 49ers, will become the Bay Area's next COVID-19 mass vaccination site, with preparations ramping up for a Tuesday opening.
Levi's was one of the first NFL stadiums to be approved as a mass vaccination site before the league stepped up last week to offer up all 30 of its venues in the effort to get millions of Americans vaccinated.
The announcement by the 49ers and Santa Clara County on Friday called it California’s largest vaccination site, scheduled to serve county residents 65 and older, with an initial capacity to vaccinate 5,000 people a day and plans to increase that to as many as 15,000 as vaccine supplies increase.
"We recognize the urgent need for an effective and equitable vaccination effort for our community and are proud to partner with the county of Santa Clara to bring this vaccination site online as quickly and efficiently as possible," 49ers President Al Guido said in a statement. "We have brought every resource at our disposal to bear on this challenge to ensure members of the community we live in each and every day can be vaccinated safely and quickly."
People with appointments will park their cars in the main parking lot and walk into the stadium. There will be transportation available for the elderly and disabled to get them from their cars to the stadium.
Levi’s Stadium staff, working in conjunction with County Health System leaders, local contractors and health care workers, are preparing the stadium for the opening.
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Levi Strauss and Co., a longtime partner of the 49ers, also is joining the effort, supporting logistical costs to ensure the site is able to come online as quickly as possible, the county said.
The site will be staffed and operated by the County of Santa Clara Health System, officials said.
For more information on COVID-19 vaccines, eligibility, and distribution, visit sccfreevax.org.
