WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s administration announced Friday that the Pentagon has approved the deployment of 1,100 active troops to support COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the United States, a number likely to increase in the coming weeks and months.
The pandemic killed more than 447,000 Americans and dumped millions.
Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House’s COVID-19 response team, said in a briefing that part of the group will begin arriving in California in the next 10 days.
The Pentagon said the 1,110 soldiers would be divided into five teams, each with vaccinators, nurses and clinical staff.
The deployment is probably only the first tranche of US military personnel to help administer vaccinations across the country.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said last week that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is working with the Pentagon to deploy 10,000 troops and open 100 centers across the country to increase vaccine availability.
Using the military to fight the coronavirus is not new. At the top, under former President Donald Trump, more than 47,000 National Guard soldiers supported COVID-19 operations and about 20,000 continue to help.
The Army Corps of Engineers has also built thousands of rooms across the country to help hospitals with the strain caused by the spread of coronavirus.
De Idrees Ali