BATON ROUGE - The White House announced Friday it is partnering with Louisiana to open a community vaccination site in the capital area.

The site will set up at the Bon Carre Business Center at 7359 Florida Blvd. and it expected to administer 21,000 shots each week, 3,000 a day. The governor's office says the site will be open by April 16.

You can sign up for an appointment here.

CATS will also offer free rides to the site from the following routes:

-21 Fairfields Avenue from the Cortana Transit Center
-22 Winbourne Avenue from the Cortana Transit Center
-44 Florida from the CATS Terminal

Read the full announcement below.

Today, the White House announced that the Administration will be partnering with the State of Louisiana to build a new major Community Vaccination Center (CVC) in Baton Rouge.

The Type II CVC will be at Bon Carre Business Center in Baton Rouge, 7359 Florida Blvd. The site will be capable of administering approximately 3,000 shots in arms a day (21,000 doses per week).

“Already in Louisiana, we’ve administered more than 2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, but we have much work ahead of us to ensure that all Louisianans, have the opportunity and ability to access this safe and effective shot that will help us end the pandemic,” Governor John Bel Edwards said. “I appreciate President Biden approving this site for Baton Rouge and for his commitment to increasing the number of doses available in our state. Louisianans can now access vaccines through hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and community vaccination centers and events. Our work with our federal partners, especially FEMA, has been strong for the entirety of this pandemic and I am confident that this continued work will result in even more Louisianans getting vaccinated against COVID-19.”

“FEMA is committed to supporting the state of Louisiana and city of Baton Rouge in the equitable, efficient and timely distribution of vaccines,” said Tony Robinson, regional administrator for FEMA Region 6. “Our state and local partners have made an extraordinary effort in the vaccine rollout, this site is another step toward ensuring all individuals who want a COVID-19 vaccine have access to one.”

“Vaccines are moving the state of Louisiana one step closer to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. My administration is committed to working with our state and federal partners to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines within Baton Rouge, and we are looking forward to the opportunity to offer vaccinations to an even larger portion of our community. This mass vaccination site should prove to be a vital asset in our fight against the coronavirus,” said Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome.

“In the nearly thirteen months since we first identified the COVID-19 pandemic in our state, more than 445,000 of our residents have been infected with the virus and more than 10,000 have died. It’s been a long, dark year and yet I am optimistic,” said Dr. Courtney N. Phillips, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health. “More than 1.2 million of our residents already have gone sleeves up for the COVID vaccines, but we know we have a lot more work to do. Our urgent mission to quickly and equitably administer these vaccines will take all of us, and we appreciate the continued support from our federal partners."

“The opening of a site this size will be beneficial in maintaining our momentum to expand access to the COVID-19 vaccine,” said GOHSEP Director Jim Waskom. “This partnership with local, state and federal teams means we will have another convenient and accessible location to help our citizens protect themselves and their families through vaccination."

The White House has already deployed federal teams to work hand-in-hand with the state and local jurisdictions, and the site is expected to be up and running within the next week.

During this pilot period, the federal government will provide limited direct vaccine allocation to the site through FEMA—as we do through federal entities for other federal programs.

The site was identified using a range of criteria, most central to those is the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). This tool was created to help emergency response planners and public health officials identify and map communities that will most likely need support before, during, and after a hazardous event. The index takes into consideration critical data points, including socioeconomic status, household composition, minority status, languages, housing type and transportation.

The goal of establishing these joint federal pilot centers is to continue to expand the rate of vaccinations in an efficient, effective and equitable manner, with an explicit focus on making sure that communities with a high risk of COVID-19 exposure and infection are not left behind.