A Sounders fan gets poked (Image: Seattle Fire)

To speed the process of getting the city’s young adults inoculated against COVID-19, the Seattle Fire Department will begin deploying its mobile vaccination teams to neighborhood breweries, outdoor dining areas, business districts, parks, and beaches.

Officials call the new mobile vaccination strategy “an effort to meet Seattle residents and workers where they are and increase vaccination rates, with a focus on younger Seattleites.”

The Mobile Vaccination Teams will begin their tour of duty to reach the 16 to 30 crowd Friday in the University District and will be partnering with Big Time Brewery & Alehouse and Sweet Alchemy Ice Creamery to offer discounts to clinic patients. More deployments and deals will follow.

(Source: King County Vaccination Dashboard)

The effort comes as the city says it estimates more than 70% of Seattle adults have at least started the vaccination process. According to King County’s vaccination dashboard, while vaccination first dose rates for county residents 50 and older range from 76% to nearly 97% for those 75 and older, only 59% of those 18-49 have started the process and 42.5% of those 16-17 have at least one shot.

With a major increase in the federal supply, CHS reported here on the sudden shift in the city that has made the vaccine suddenly widely available in the city. Despite the wide availability, the region has struggled with continued spread of the virus though there are signs of a “plateau” and hope the area will not need to roll back to a higher level of restrictions on businesses and social gathering.

Officials have responded with a flurry of partnerships that include vaccinations offered at major sporting events and sessions with church organ accompaniment at Capitol Hill’s St. Mark’s Cathedral.

The city’s vaccination efforts come as part of a pieced-together federal strategy forged during the Trump administration mixing commercial and retail providers and municipalities together in a loose network to distribute the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson developed and manufactured vaccines. Since launching its vaccination effort on January 14, City of Seattle says it has administered over 170,000 vaccinations to eligible adults — over 111,000 individuals. These vaccinations have occurred at 88 Adult Family Homes, 90 affordable housing buildings with seniors and people with disabilities, 19 pop-ups, 18 permanent supportive housing buildings, two vulnerable youth-serving organizations, city sport events, and the four city-affiliated fixed vaccination sites including the megasite at Lumen Field.

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