City of Seattle to hand off COVID-19 testing sites to UW Medicine, close its last vaccine clinic

Seattle is stepping out of the COVID-19 testing business after shutting down city-operated vaccination stations earlier this summer.

The city announced on Wednesday that it would hand over operations to UW Medicine from its current major test sites in SODO and along Aurora Avenue in North Seattle starting Saturday evening.

The city’s only remaining vaccination clinic at the SODO site and its mobile vaccination station will also cease operations. COVID-19 vaccinations will continue to be available at pharmacies, hospitals, and other clinical facilities across the region.

Seat executives were vaccination high-flyers. Nearly 77% of city residents eligible for vaccination are fully vaccinated and 82% have received at least one dose. Nationwide, 61% of those eligible are fully vaccinated and nearly 67% have received at least one dose.

A steady stream of cars drove into the city’s SODO testing and vaccination facility on Wednesday afternoon as Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan acknowledges city residents’ willingness to get tested and vaccinated for making it possible for the city to to end their participation in tests and vaccinations.

“That’s why we’re doing the next transition and phase this week, which will shift the city’s role in testing and vaccination to our partners,” she said.

Seattle, King County and UW Medicine worked together from the beginning of the pandemic and followed “healthy approaches” to fighting the virus and disease, wrote Dr. Geoff Baird, Professor and Chair of UW Medicine Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, in an email.

“While a new one [virus] There is clearly an increase coming, we are well positioned to have sufficient testing capacity in the community to provide our citizens with the information they need to stop the virus from spreading and get the care they need ” , he wrote.

In June, Seattle began closing its vaccine clinics at the Lumen Field Event Center, Rainier Beach, West Seattle, and a clinic at North Seattle College that is jointly operated with the Seattle Visiting Nurse Association. When the closings were announced, 60% of eligible city residents were fully vaccinated.

Despite the high vaccination rate in Seattle, tests are still needed.

“Tests give individuals the information they need to make good decisions and get the medical care they need, and they also give our doctors, scientists, and governments the information they need to help keep the disease spread and its prevalence new Mutants and the effectiveness of the public health countermeasures we have deployed, ”Baird wrote.

The extremely contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is causing a spike in COVID-19 cases across Washington, including King County. Since June 29, the average number of daily cases has risen 130% to 141. The trends were worrying enough for public health officials to recommend that all people wear masks in indoor public spaces despite their vaccinated status.

Seattle does not exist in a COVID-free vacuum and there are still many people across the city who are not vaccinated against COVID-19.

There are 700,000 people who haven’t been vaccinated in King County and 400,000 of them are eligible, said Dennis Worsham, interim director for Public Health – Seattle & King County.

“It’s a big number,” he said at the press conference. “And we have to do everything we can to bring that number down.”

The Seattle Fire Department began testing first responders in mid-March last year and expanded to test staff and residents in long-term care facilities, and in June 2020 the fire department began testing the public.

Eventually, the Seattle firefighters tested thousands of people at locations in West Seattle, Rainier Beach, North Seattle, and SODO. When the COVID-19 vaccines were introduced, many of the test centers served as vaccine clinics.

“It has been a real honor and privilege for the Seattle Fire Department to have been instrumental in vaccinating the community we serve for the past seven months … I am proud to work and live in a community in who so many of our neighbors have chosen to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their fellow human beings and ultimately to help us recover from this pandemic, “said SFD chief Harold Scoggins in a press release.

According to the city, 134,000 people received a vaccine through a city-operated clinic and 786,131 COVID-19 tests were performed. The SFD will continue to provide vaccinations through its mobile unit and SODO location through Saturday 5:30 p.m. when UW Medicine takes over.