The Department of Defense will send more than 1,000 active-duty soldiers to support mass vaccination sites against coronavirus in states across the country, the White House response team COVID-19 announced on Friday.
Why does it matter: The Pentagon has approved a request from FEMA to provide military assistance to five vaccination centers as part of President Biden’s effort to vaccinate 100 million people (with at least one dose) in its first 100 days. function.
Between the lines: FEMA’s full request was for 10,000 soldiers to be deployed to 100 mass vaccination sites. It is unclear if or when this will happen.
Details: The first troop of troops will arrive in California “in the next ten days to begin operations there around February 15, with additional vaccination missions coming soon,” Andy Slavitt, the White House coronavirus adviser, said in a statement. -a press briefing.
- The military will eventually seek to administer up to 450,000 vaccines a day, according to CNN.
- DOD will provide a press briefing on Friday afternoon with more details.
The whole picture: Slavitt also announced that “six more companies will increase the production of home test kits, with the aim of – by the summer – having millions of Americans able to access home testing.”
Bottom line: The Biden administration is embarking on a “government-wide” campaign to reduce the coronavirus pandemic and bring the country back to normal.