ISSAQUAH, Wash. — Eastside Fire and Rescue is getting ready to open a mass vaccination site at Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah.
They started setting up the two lane drive-thru vaccination site last month, to be ready when they were able to secure vaccine. The site is a partnership with the City of Sammamish, City of Issaquah and the Snoqualmie Tribe.
It is the first mass vaccination site on the Eastside.
“The Snoqualmie Tribe is proud to be able to provide these vaccines to individuals living in the Snoqualmie Tribe’s ancestral lands. In the 1860′s, the Snoqualmie people and other Northwest Natives experienced great loss as white settlers adopted a smallpox vaccine policy that discriminated against Natives,” said Robert De Los Angeles, Snoqualmie Tribal Chairman. “Now, the Snoqualmie Tribe is exercising sovereignty through our Tribal values by caring for the people and communities living on our ancestral lands 160 years later during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The cities were hoping to get an allocation from King County to use at the site, but it didn’t come through, that’s when the Snoqualmie Tribe stepped in to help.
Eastside Fire and Rescue had already been partnering with the Snoqualmie Tribe for vaccine clinics at the Snoqualmie Casino three days a week. The Snoqualmie Tribe has been able to get the vaccines it requests from the state. The Snoqualmie Tribe was able to secure enough vaccine to support the Lake Sammamish Vaccine Clinic.
The site is expected to start with 300 vaccinations a day and be able to grow to 600 in a month, when people will return for their second shots. Eastside Fire and Rescue says it is talking with King County about how it can support the clinic with language services and other help, including the possibility of supplying vaccine later this spring.
The Lake Sammamish vaccination clinic officially opens for appointments beginning on April 12. The Snoqualmie Tribe is preparing to launch their appointment website later this week.