San Francisco is pulling out all the stops it can to get as many people vaccinated or boosted for the holidays.
The city on Thursday set up a series of drop-in locations in hopes of attracting residents who could not get an appointment or did not want to wait.
One of the drop-in locations is a tent at the Kaiser Permanente on Geary Boulevard. A steady stream of people were seen Thursday braving the cold and rain to get their shots.
The Kaiser location was one of four clinics accepting walk-up patients with no appointments needed. In addition to Kaiser, people were told they could drop in and get vaccinated at the Chinese Hospital, San Francisco General and the Southeast Health Center.
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For many in line, the convenience matched their urgency.
"I work in customer service at a coffee shop, so I felt it was pretty essential to get it done soon," San Francisco resident Tim Tait said.
Another San Francisco resident, Sarawut Chuchote, also stopped by one of the clinics on Thursday.
"I'm a flight attendant with United Airlines and it's our duty," Chuchote said. "We need to take the vaccine and make sure everyone -- if we go back to fly -- that everyone is safe."
The new strategy in San Francisco is open indefinitely and comes as the city sees the beginning of a new COVID surge. The San Francisco Public Health Department said cases tripled last week -- three times faster than when the Delta variant hit during the summer.
"The earlier we get people getting those boosters, definitely the better," SFDPH Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip said, citing how cases have gone up in South Africa, London and New York.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health is also making drop-in testing available at more than 20 sites and plans on expanding those sites to try to administer 20,000 tests a week.
