The Oakland Coliseum is one step closer to becoming a mass vaccination site for the COVID-19 shot.
On Friday, the Coliseum Authority will vote on it as other Bay Area stadiums and arenas are working on becoming a host site.
“This is being done in Southern California at Dodgers Stadium and elsewhere and we need it in the Bay Area,” said Oakland’s Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan. “Oakland is a hard hit community with impacts of COVID.”
Kaplan has just been appointed to the Coliseum Authority Board and says the site is perfect because the infrastructure is already there.
“Luckily we did the work last fall, the set up as a voting site. You can set up the vehicle flow so you can come in, get a vaccine and go out without creating any crowding,” she said.
Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval is endorsing the move by tweeting Thursday that the “Athletics are working with several providers to make it happen.”
As the Coliseum leads the way here in the Bay Area, Oracle Park officials say they hope to announce something soon.
Chase Center and SAP Center executives both say nothing has been determined yet, but the 49ers are offering up space at Levi's stadium. The team’s president reached out to Santa Clara County’s board president making it clear he wants to be a part of protecting the community.
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President-elect Joe Biden also talked about the need to create more places for people to get vaccinated.
“To mobilize more medical teams to get shots in people’s arms and to increase vaccine supply and get it out the door as fast as possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kaplan said she doesn’t see anything standing in the way of an approval for the Coliseum to start giving COVID-19 shots very soon.
