COVID Vaccines: Santa Clara County Opens 2nd Large Vaccination Site In Hard-Hit East San Jose
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – For the second time in a week, Santa Clara County health officials opened a large COVID-19 vaccination site in East San Jose, as the county continues to increase vaccine access in hard-hit communities.
The site that opened Friday is located at Valley Health Center East Valley on McKee Road, across the street from Regional Medical Center. Officials said the site would have the capacity to vaccinate a few hundred people per day.
On Tuesday, county officials opened another large vaccination site in the area at Emmanuel Baptist Church on North White Road, which has the capacity to offer 500 vaccinations per day. East San Jose, in particular zip code 95127, has one of the highest infection rates in the county, with about 1 in 10 residents having contracted COVID-19.
The county also opened a mass vaccination site this week at Gilroy High School in Gilroy, which has the second highest COVID-19 infection rate in Santa Clara County.
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"In Santa Clara County we are confronting vaccine distribution inequities head-on by going directly to our residents disproportionately hit by COVID and vaccinating them where they live," said Supervisor Cindy Chavez, whose district covers Central and East San Jose.
County officials said they continue to see disparities in vaccine access, particularly among Latino and Black communities. Along with opening additional locations, additional strategies being employed by the county to address disparities include small pop-up vaccination sites, extending clinic hours, outreach in multiple languages and offering scheduling assistance for those most at-risk.
Officials announced Friday that county vaccine sites have administered nearly 177,000 first doses and nearly 60,000 second doses. An additional 60,000 appointments have been scheduled over the next seven days.
Appointments for the East Valley Clinic and other county vaccination sites can be found at https://sccfreevax.org or by calling 211.
