Dear neighbors,
On Monday, Feb. 1, King County will open two community vaccination sites, one at the ShoWare Center in Kent and the other at the General Services Administration complex in Auburn.
They will be operating six days a week, providing 500 shots per day. Registration for these sites will be open to residents of south King County who are 75 or older, as well as some people who take care of older adults or kin. You can find more information, including how to register, here.
Other ways to be vaccinated
According to the state’s criteria, all people 65 and older are eligible to be vaccinated, as well as people 50 and older who live in multigenerational households.
More people will continue to become eligible by age and vulnerability. To see if you are eligible to receive the vaccine and, if you’re not yet, to sign up to be notified for when your phase is announced, go to http://findyourphasewa.org/.
The Puget Sound Fire Department, which covers Kent, Covington and SeaTac, is contributing by using its mobile paramedics to vaccinate residents in Adult Family Homes in Kent and SeaTac.
Current south King County vaccine locations are:
- St. Anne Hospital (formerly Highline Medical Center), Burien: info here, or you can call 253-792-2385.
- One Stop Medical Clinic, Kent: email covid.onestop@gmail.com for appointments
- Sea Mar, Burien, Kent, Des Moines, Seattle: https://www.seamar.org/covid-vaccine
- Safeway Pharmacy 1294, Kent: info here. Scheduling is available online only.
- Kent Family Practice, Kent: info here, or you can call 253-854-9799.
- MultiCare – Auburn Medical Center Vaccine, Auburn: info here.
The availability of appointments at these locations is changing daily; please contact them for the latest information and know that they may not have appointments available at that time.
Relief for employers and help for workers
This week, we took a major step to help all businesses across Washington recover from the pandemic recession. The Legislature passed my bill to bring $1.7 billion unemployment insurance premium relief to employers as well as raise the minimum benefit to help workers and families who need it the most.
This issue is urgent. Employers are seeing increases of 300 to 500 percent and more in their unemployment premiums. SB 5061, which will take effect as soon as Governor Inslee signs it, will keep employers from being on the hook for such large premium increases.
This bill is a great bipartisan success and a tremendous weight off the shoulders of many small businesses who have been worried they would not make it to the end of the pandemic. You can read more about it here.
Stay in Touch
If you’d like to follow what I’m working on, you can like my official legislative Facebook page here.
Please don’t hesitate to stay in touch. Stay safe and take care.
Always,
Senator Karen Keiser
Chair, Senate Labor & Commerce Committee
Senate President Pro Tempore
