Amazon will open pop-up Covid vaccine clinic in Seattle

Amazon is opening a pop-up clinic in Seattle to administer Covid-19 vaccines.

The one-day clinic will be set up on Sunday at Amazon’s headquarters in downtown Seattle, the company announced Thursday at a news conference with Washington Governor Jay Inslee.

“The truth is, Covid-19 has been a tragedy for the country, for the world and for Washington,” Amazon’s top spokesperson, Jay Carney, said during the news conference. “We’re eager to help save lives here in our home state, to rebuild the economy with you and turn the page on Covid as quickly as we can.”

The clinic, which is being launched in partnership with Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, has a goal of administering 2,000 vaccines to the eligible members of the public. Amazon is providing the space to administer the vaccines, as well as assisting with logistics, an Amazon spokesperson said.

Currently, the state of Washington allows people aged 65 and older, as well as people aged 50 and older who live in a multigenerational household, to receive the vaccine.

Beyond the pop-up clinic, Carney said Amazon is working with Inslee and the state on its Covid-19 vaccine efforts. Amazon leadership is part of the Washington State Vaccine Command and Coordination Center, a public private partnership between the state and several other companies, including Starbucks and Microsoft, aimed at boosting Covid-19 vaccinations.

The clinic comes as Amazon has appealed to President Joe Biden and other officials for its front-line workers to get priority access to the Covid-19 vaccine. The company wrote to Biden on Wednesday offering up its operations, information technology and communications expertise to help with national vaccination efforts.

Carney said Amazon is ready to begin administering vaccines to its front-line workers once doses are available. He added that the company has ramped up coronavirus testing at its warehouses, having run “over a million tests” at 650 sites across the U.S.