The San Francisco 49ers and Santa Clara County collaborated to create California's largest vaccination site at Levi's Stadium.
The COVID-19 vaccine site opened this week and will ramp up as more doses become available in the coming weeks and months. Niners team president Al Guido joined NFL Network's NFL NOW on Friday to discuss the team's effort to help the vaccination process.
"We started working on this frankly about two months ago," Guido said. "And we're happy to open up a couple of days ago. We're doing a little over 1,000 (vaccinations) a day right now, and frankly, the great thing about our facility -- not just ours but all NFL stadiums - is we've got 2,000,000 square feet where we can vaccinate people. ... We believe we're going to get up to 15,000 people a day, making us the largest site in California. Truthfully, just like every state right now, we're just waiting on supply. But it's going well so far. We're really proud to partner with our Santa Clara County Public Health Department to pull it off."
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote to President Joe Biden last Friday, offering all league stadiums as vaccine sites.
Guido said that the 49ers and the rest of the NFL take pride in helping their local communities.
"We're a part of the fabric of our community," he said. "I always say we're more than what we do on Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays. We live here. We shop here. We send our kids to school here. So frankly, it's incumbent upon us to give back to the community and to make sure that we're using our facilities to make sure that people are healthy and safe moving forward."
Guido added that the more vaccinations made possible in the coming months -- made easier in large facilities like Levi's Stadium -- the greater chance fans can be back in the stand watching games in 2021.
"The first step to getting back to some normalcy is getting shots in some people's arms, and if we the San Francisco 49ers or Levi's Stadium can support those efforts, then great," Guido said. "I hope we can do more as the months go on. We can open up more parts of our building, and that supply is coming to us in a faster way so we can get shots in people's arms quicker. ...
"Our goal now is let's get some shots in people's arms, let's make sure they stay safe. Let's save lives. Not just in this county but all over the country. So that we can get people back in Levi's Stadium to watch the San Francisco 49ers play on our field. That is the goal for all of us every single day right now."
Further information on vaccine availability in Santa Clara County at Levi’s Stadium can be found at the team’s official website.