The Department of Defense will send more than 1,000 active-duty servicemen to support mass coronavirus vaccination sites in states across the country, the White House COVID-19 response team announced Friday.
Why it’s important: He The Pentagon approved a FEMA request to provide military assistance to five vaccination centers as part of an effort to achieve President Biden’s goal of vaccinating 100 million people (with at least one dose) during its first 100 days in office.
Between lines: FEMA’s complete request was to deploy 10,000 troops to 100 mass vaccination sites. It is unclear if or when this will happen.
Details: The first troop contingent will arrive in California “in the next ten days to begin operations around Feb. 15, and additional vaccination missions will soon follow,” White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt announced in a statement. press conference.
- According to CNN, the military will try to administer up to 450,000 vaccines a day.
- The DOD will offer a press session on Friday afternoon with more details.
The big picture: Slavitt also announced that “six more companies will increase the manufacture of home test kits, with the goal that, in the summer, millions of Americans will be able to access home testing.”
The summary: The Biden administration is involved in a “government-wide” campaign to curb the coronavirus pandemic and get the country back to normal.