Finding a COVID Vaccine in WA State

Starting April 15th all individuals over 16 are eligible to get the COVID vaccine in Washington state. The challenge is finding one. Here’s some help.

This post was last updated on 2021-05-18 and is unlikely to get updated again. The resources listed here may be out of date in the future.

The best place to start is the Vaccine Locator from the Washington State Department of Health (DoH). In addition to all of the state-provided sources, it also pulls in data from the WA COVID Vaccine Finder at covidwa.com. The DoH website includes some sources that the other one doesn’t.

You can also call 1-833-VAX-HELP (833-829-4357) to find a vaccine appointment. This can be a very useful resources for individuals who don’t have internet access to schedule an appointment.

As of April 26th, City of Seattle has thousands of appointments available to anyone living or working in King County!

Many of the more rural parts of WA have open appointments! The DoH PrepMod site includes links to large vaccination sites in Yakima, Spokane, Olympia, Wenatchee, Oak Harbor and more. Yakima in particular has a large FEMA vaccination site that pulls from the federal, not state, vaccination allotment. Remember to check the WSDOT website for road conditions if you’re heading over the pass!

The Snoqualmie Tribe is partnering with Eastside Fire & Rescue, City of Sammamish, and City of Issaquah for vaccinations at Lake Sammamish.

You can sometimes schedule an appointment through one of the large hospital systems. If you are an established patient you can usually do this through their user portal (often MyChart). If you aren’t an established patient you may have to call them.

• UW Medicine
• Virginia Mason
• The Polyclinic – need to call to schedule an appointment
• Swedish
• Kaiser Permanente
• EvergreenHealth
• Fred Hutch – new appointments open up at midnight local time
• Valley Medical Center

If your primary care physician isn’t associated with one of the big hospitals, check in with them. I know my doctor’s small clinic has some doses and has been vaccinating eligible people in the past few weeks.

Seattle Visiting Nurse Association is doing appointments. New ones are available daily around 9a and go very fast, so be prepared to very quickly fill out the form.

The DoH Vaccine Locator certainly includes some of the drugstore chains (like Rite Aid & Walgreens) but it doesn’t seem to include appointments for all of them.

• Bartells – received sizable number of doses in 12 stores as of April 23.
• CVS – appointments appear to update at midnight local time so checking just after midnight might be your best bet.
• Pharmaca
• Rite Aid
• Walgreens

Big-box stores and grocery chains with pharmacies are also doing appointments and I’ve not seen all of these show up in the DoH Vaccine Locator.

• Costco Pharmacy
• Walmart Pharmacy – appointments appear to update at midnight local time so checking just after midnight might be your best bet.
• Safeway Pharmacy
• Fred Meyer Pharmacy (includes QFC)

If you live or work in King County, you can sign up for a City of Seattle vaccination appointment directly. You can also register to get notified for an appointment at the Seattle mass vaccination clinics but be prepared to act fast when you get the email as appointments go quickly.

Though Seattle’s Good Neighbor program, adults 60+ can get vaccinated via walk-ins at the Rainer Beach and West Seattle vaccination sites. Best of all, any single accompanying adult 16+ can also get vaccinated.

Veterans are also able to get the vaccine right now through the VA — I’ve had two coworkers take advantage of this already.

And finally, you can sign up for the Dr. B standby list to be notified if any additional doses become available from cancelled appointments.

It sounds like April 15th is going to be a shit-show for those of us who are going to suddenly become eligible and want to get vaccinated. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

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2021-04-09: Updated to include links to pharmacies (including big-box & grocery stores) as well as the City of Seattle vaccination appointments.

2021-04-10: Added EvergreenHealth and Pharmaca.

2021-04-12: Added note about vaccine availability in rural areas, link to the DoH PrepMod site, and Snoqualmie Tribe vaccination partnership.

2021-04-13: Added Seattle Visiting Nurse Association and hints on checking CVS and Walmart after midnight when new appointments become available.

2021-04-15: Added Fred Hutch and Valley Medical Center.

2021-04-21: Added Seattle’s Good Neighbor program.

2021-04-23: Noted that Bartell’s received a sizable number of doses recently.

2021-04-26: Added appointment availability from City of Seattle.

2021-05-18: Added WA DoH vaccine phone number.