The Pentagon has approved 20 more military teams, a combined total of 4,700 members of the service, to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administer COVID-19 vaccines nationwide.
Following last week’s approval of five such teams, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
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The 20 will be divided into 10 teams of 222 staff members who support mega-vaccination sites and 10 teams of 139 people who will help the little ones.
All equipment, consisting primarily of active duty forces, will be dispatched “as requirements evolve.”
The Pentagon announced last week that it had authorized 1,100 initial members of the active service to help FEMA in five state vaccination sites, in response to the agency’s request to the Department of Defense in late January to help with the 100 millions of Biden administration people vaccinated to target the first 100 days.
Of the first five teams approved, only one has been announced and deployed, a team from Fort Carson, Col., who arrived in Los Angeles to support a mega-vaccination center. Kirby said the team hopes to be up and running on Monday.
He added that the Pentagon will soon have more information on where the other four teams will be sent, but that it is a complicated process that requires coordination with local and state authorities.
“We don’t want to move too fast because we’re overwhelming the process or the system,” Kirby said.
The Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, of which FEMA is a part, have in recent weeks discussed how the military can help the agency with President Biden
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Possible solutions included include sending up to 100 active force teams and the National Guard (a total of 10,000 troops) to the vaccination sites.