Mobile vaccination units to serve Chinatown seniors, Treasure Island residents

Late next week, San Francisco’s mobile vaccination team will start administering Covid-19 vaccines to seniors living in Chinatown’s largest public housing complex, city officials announced Friday.

The City plans to vaccinate up to 1,000 seniors and eligible residents at the Ping Yuen housing complex and in other senior living facilities over the course of April 2 and April 9. The two-day mobile vaccination event is an effort to increase vaccination rates among seniors in Chinatown.

Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center, said in a statement:

“Vaccine availability and accessibility has been challenging for Chinatown given our high volume of seniors, frontline workers, transit users and overcrowded families living in SROs. We welcome this place-based vax for Ping Yuen’s seniors—bringing it to public housing and, hopefully, SRO’s will significantly amplify the effort to get our San Francisco communities protected against COVID.”

The mobile vaccination unit is part of The City’s plan to reach residents who are homebound, living in senior facilities and individuals who are homeless and living in high-risk congregate facilities.

Another 30 mobile vaccinations events are planned over the next three weeks, city officials said.

On Saturday, the mobile unit will set up at the Ship Shape Community Center, located at 850 Avenue I, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., to serve eligible Treasure Island residents. The site will primarily operate by appointment, but will offer limited drop-in capacity.

Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents Treasure Island, said in a statement on Tuesday:

“Having this low-barrier vaccine site on Treasure Island is critical to the City’s recovery and meeting our equity goals.”

His office said door-to-door outreach began earlier this week to help residents schedule appointments. Staff from the San Francisco Fire Department will administer the vaccine. Two more Treasure Island events are scheduled for April 3 and April 10 on Treasure Island.

On The City’s plans to distribute the vaccine in communities hit hardest by the pandemic, Mayor London Breed said in a statement:

“We know that means meeting people where they are and making vaccines not only available, but also easy to access. Our community clinics and mobile vaccination teams are a critical part of that effort.”

Officials said mobile vaccination units have administered more than 2,000 doses throughout several neighborhoods.

The Mayor’s Office on Disability is also working with community groups to organize additional mobile vaccine events. One such event scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at the University of the Pacific Dental School aims to vaccinate 300 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Starting April 2 and recurring for four to six weeks, the Lighthouse for the Blind will administer 200 doses per day to persons with disabilities. The City has set up a call center at (628) 652-2700 to help individuals with disabilities who are otherwise unable to schedule appointments through health providers or by using the internet.

The City reports that as of March 25, 42 percent of residents over the age of 16, or 320,294, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, that includes 80 percent of residents over the age of 65. Nearly 60 percent of residents over the age of 65 have been fully vaccinated.

Residents can visit https://sf.gov/get-vaccinated-against-covid-19 to review current eligibility criteria and schedule vaccine appointments.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.