The U.S. military is planning to deploy 100 vaccinations teams across the United States to fight COVID-19, with new operations beginning in New York and Texas, AP reports.
Starting next week, service members will be administering vaccines in four locations in Florida and one site in Philadelphia.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently visited a federally run vaccination site in Los Angeles, currently staffed by a 222-member military team from Fort Carson, Colorado. The operation, based out of California State University, Los Angeles, aims to vaccinate 6,000 people per day.
The DoD has more than 1,900 personnel involved in the vaccine support mission, with 2,000 additional troops awaiting requests for support from FEMA.
According to a DoD press release, assisting in the vaccination effort has been just the latest development in aiding the civilian population during the pandemic. “The U.S. military helped get Americans home from overseas locations early on and assisted in quarantining civilians from affected cruise ships. Two Navy hospital ships deployed to New York and California when COVID-19 cases threatened to run out of control. Army teams deployed to other affected communities.”
Photo by Air Force Senior Airman Neil Mabini, California Air National Guard
