San Francisco community leaders and Supervisor Matt Haney are calling on the city to open COVID-19 vaccination sites with easy public access on Treasure Island and in the Tenderloin neighborhood.
Low-income ZIP codes in the two areas are among those targeted by the state to receive a greater vaccine supply. But residents often lack internet access to make appointments or a way to get to mass vaccination sites like Moscone Center, said Del Seymour, who directs the job readiness nonprofit Code Tenderloin.
“Treasure Island is a long way," Seymour said. "And if you are disabled or you are not comfortable yet getting on the bus because of COVID, that’s a barrier right there."
Treasure Island has one of the lowest inoculation rates in the city, with only about 0.2% of residents who’ve received the vaccine, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Meanwhile, the Tenderloin has the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases in San Francisco.
There is no vaccine site on Treasure Island and clinics in the Tenderloin are providing inoculations mostly to clients and staff, according to Haney’s office.
As more residents in those areas become eligible for vaccines, the city’s public health department must set up local sites, including walk-ins where eligible residents can get the vaccine on the same day, said Haney, whose district includes both the Tenderloin and Treasure Island.
“These communities are ready and what is happening now is not enough, it’s not working,” Haney said during a Zoom meeting with reporters this week. “We are falling short to ensure access for these neighborhoods.”
The city is piloting mobile vaccination units at a senior center and other locations in the Tenderloin, and it's working with local community groups to help them build capacity to inoculate eligible neighborhood residents, according to a statement by the San Francisco COVID Command Center.
The center and the public health department will also set up a vaccination site on Treasure Island, according to the statement, which will be open to residents as eligibility expands.
Officials with the department control only 30% of the vaccine supply coming to the city, while the rest is allocated by the state or federal government to health care providers such as Sutter, Kaiser Permanente and UCSF, as well as to pharmacies.