The federal government will send hundreds of active troops to California in the coming weeks to help strengthen the administration of vaccines in the state.
Andy Slavitt, senior White House coronavirus response adviser, said Friday that the Department of Defense had approved the request for the first contingent in what would eventually be a deployment of thousands of Army members around new mass coronavirus vaccination sites across the country. te beman. country.
“The critical role of the military in supporting websites will help vaccinate thousands of people a day and ensure that every American who wants a vaccine receives one,” Slavitt said at a news conference.
The Biden administration announced this week that it plans to establish 100 mass vaccination sites nationwide in the next few months, and the first two are expected to be at the Oakland Coliseum and California State University in Los Angeles in mid-February.
Government officials expect the Coliseum site to eventually deliver up to 6,000 doses a day, focusing on expanding access to vaccines to underserved communities.
At least one of the California sites, which is under the supervision of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will receive a team of 222 troops from across the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps within the next ten days, according to the Department of Defense. The team will include 80 inmates, 57 clinical staff and 15 registered nurses.
FEMA’s total request is that 10,000 troops support the planned 100 mass vaccination sites. The Department of Defense on Thursday approved the first group of 1,100 to assist five people, including the team already announced in California.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, said during a briefing Friday that he did not know whether the vaccination site in Oakland or the Los Angeles area would receive military assistance, nor where the other four teams would go.
FEMA did not respond to questions asking for clarification.
“We will work with the DOD for additional resources on federal support works across the country,” a spokesman said in an email.
The effort is part of a broader strategy by the Biden government to rely on its military forces to increase the country’s coronavirus response.
Tim Manning, the national supply chain coordinator for response to coronavirus, said Friday that the federal government is also calling for the Defense Production Act to increase the production of vaccines, coronavirus tests and protective gloves.
A limited amount of doses was one of the biggest restrictions on vaccination in California and across the country. Manning said the Biden administration will give Pfizer a priority rating to secure critical equipment, including filling pumps and removing a bottleneck for vaccine production.
“It is actions like these that will enable Pfizer to increase production and reach its targets of delivering hundreds of millions of doses in the coming months,” Manning said.
Alexei Koseff is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @akoseff
Elucidation: An earlier version of this article stated that the federal government would send troops to persons for mass vaccinations in Oakland and Los Angeles. It is unclear which site in California will receive assistance.