STORY AND PHOTO BY CARLY HELTZEL

Last Friday, the City of Mountain View opened its first mass vaccination site at the community center, currently serving eligible health care workers by appointments only on weekdays. 

Although private healthcare providers such as Kaiser Permanente and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation are vaccinating residents age 75 and older — with the Stanford system even vaccinating 65 and older — the city vaccination center is currently only administering to healthcare workers.

Prior to this latest opening, Santa Clara County only had sites in San Jose, which Mountain View Mayor Ellen Kamei said posed an issue to those who don’t have a car or other means to get there. The goal of the Mountain View site, she said, is to provide accessibility and widen the reach of distribution. 

“Convenience is key,” wrote County Supervisor Joe Simitian in a press release. “The more locations we have that serve folks where they live and work, the more likely it is we’ll be able to slow the tide of the virus. We need more vaccine, and more options that are both local and convenient.”

With plans to “ramp up quickly” to administering 1,000 vaccines per day, the site will initially take a moderate approach to avoid the website crashing due to high web traffic, as other vaccine websites have in the past. 

The city has also been coordinating with the county sheriff’s office and city police department to secure vaccines and mitigate traffic at the site.

“We are committed to bringing COVID-19 vaccines to the public as quickly and safely as possible,” Kamei said. “Mountain View was ready and willing to answer the call to action and provide the necessary leadership in standing up a vaccination site right away in partnership with the County of Santa Clara.”

Visit the county’s vaccine information page to find more information and schedule vaccine appointments, if eligible.