Feb. 17, 2021Thousands of eligible San Mateo County residents are receiving their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine this week at the largest mass vaccination site between San Francisco and the South Bay.

Located in the long-term parking garage at San Francisco International Airport, the center is the most ambitious effort yet to get vaccine into the arms of eligible residents. Getting the center up and running is a test to see if the airport’s garage is suitable as a future mass-vaccination site.

“We are proud to partner with San Mateo County Health to support the ongoing distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine,” said SFO Airport Director Ivar C. Satero. “Defeating this pandemic requires collaboration across multiple agencies, and we hope to be a vital resource to our health officials.”

Appointments

Drive-through appointments at SFO are available Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, for county residents ages 65 and older and eligible health care workers under the state’s Phase 1A vaccination plan.

 

Learn the details and see if an appointment is available. No walk-up (or fly-in) appointments are available.

 

San Mateo County Health in partnership with SFO and other organizations began administering vaccinations over four days to eligible residents on Friday, February 12.

The County expects to have administered 12,500 doses of vaccine at the SFO center by Friday, Feb. 19

SFO has converted one of its multi-level garages to serve as a drive-through vaccination center. The airport is San Mateo County’s largest employer and a major economic engine for the entire region.

“We’ve got to get shots in arms and SFO is the perfect location to stage this mass vaccination effort by the County,” said Board of Supervisors President David J. Canepa.

“We need to end COVID and partnering with SFO will allow us to do just that. If this pilot proves successful, as I’m sure it will, it will allow us to scale up the operation at one of the nation’s greatest airports as more of the vaccine becomes available. I couldn’t be prouder of the many County and SFO staff who worked so hard to make this possible.”

 

From San Mateo County Board President David J. Canepa

DALY CITY – San Mateo County Board President David J. Canepa will be joined by San Francisco International Airport Director Ivar C. Satero to unveil a COVID-19 mass vaccination center in a partnership between SFO and San Mateo County. The event is 11 a.m., long-term parking garage, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 100 S. Airport Blvd.

“If this pilot flies off the ground as we expect it to then I imagine SFO could offer vaccinations round the clock, 24/7, just like it accommodates its international travelers,” Canepa said. “If we want SFO to return to glory, as it is an incredible economic engine for the Bay Area and state, we must first end COVID.”

 

Over four days, more than 11,000 doses of the vaccine will be administered at SFO to San Mateo County residents age 65+.

As of Monday, Feb. 15, 109,793 county residents have received the vaccine, including approximately:

  • 38 percent (49,838) of residents age 65+ (of 129,975 total) and
  • 47 percent (25,693) of the portion of that group age 75+ (of 55,000 total)

according to the county’s Health System.

 

International air travel is down 60 percent and the industry has lost $370 billion since the pandemic, according to the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization.

Tourism is San Francisco’s biggest industry and supported 86,111 jobs before the coronavirus pandemic, including thousands of San Mateo County residents, but conventions and leisure travel have been frozen following shelter-in-place orders in March 2020, according to the city’s tourism bureau. The losses in tourism dollars for 2020 and 2021 in San Francisco are projected to be nearly $11 billion.

“We want to welcome back our friends, families and tourists from overseas but first we must make it safe for them and we can only do that by administering as many doses as possible to as many people as swiftly as we can,” Canepa said. “If we do this first, then we can see the economy really take off and stay on course.”