Fire agencies distributing vaccinations at drive-through clinics
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY—Fire agencies across Contra Costa County are putting down the hoses and picking up needles as they join the fight to get as many residents as possible vaccinated at designated drive-thru clinic sites in East and West County.
Locations in Central County, notably Concord, are not yet playing host. However, Contra County Health Services did open a new vaccination clinic at Concord Health Center in mid-February.
Based on dosage availability, Contra Costa Fire Protection District Public Information Officer Steve Hill noted 500 vaccinations per clinic, per day is the goal for the drive-thru clinics. Four Hercules clinics in West County, operating on Mondays and Tuesdays, achieved 2,000 vaccines during its initial days of operations in early February.
Valentine’s Day weekend was the time frame for the first drive-thru clinic to happen at Los Medanos College in Brentwood, and 500 per day was the projection for that site. Going forward the plan is for the Brentwood clinic to operate on select Fridays and Saturdays.
County health officials say the Concord Health Center will be able to provide an additional 150 vaccines per day or 750 per week.
Vaccinations ramping up
The drive-thru clinics are designed to be scalable to serve up to 1,000 vaccines a day, and some locations may be ramped up to serve the higher numbers of residents starting in the latter weeks of February if the larger quantities of the vaccine become available.
The drive through clinics are being set up in locations around the county based on CCHS requests. This also includes San Ramon’s Bishop Ranch in South County.
“We’re eager to leverage our considerable first responder EMS capability to extend vaccinations to as many residents as possible but that is driven by vaccine availability and CCHS request,” Hill said.
Participating fire agencies include Contra County Fire, Crockett-Carquinez Fire, East Contra Costa Fire, El Cerrito Fire, Moraga-Orinda Fire, Pinole Fire, Richmond Fire, Rodeo-Hercules Fire, and San Ramon Valley Fire.
In addition to the fire agency-run clinics, there are currently 14 county-run vaccine sites providing about 12,000 vaccines weekly. The community can learn about information for these locations on a map on the CCHS dashboard, as well as information about vaccination rates in different communities.
Regardless of location, all vaccination clinics around the county are by appointment only. Walk-up or drop-in vaccinations are not available. Eligibility is determined by CCHS and the criteria can be reviewed and appointments made on its website.