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At the end of last week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved 1,110 troops to help with vaccination efforts, but only a fraction of that number has received orders. A team of 222 military personnel will visit a vaccination site in Los Angeles, a FEMA spokesperson said, adding that they will arrive on Thursday and will be operational on or around Monday.
“To be vaccinated – to be vaccinated – in the arms of the people is the mission,” said Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson, Commander of the Northern Army. “And this team, here on behalf of the governor and the state, has the capacity to immunize thousands more people every day.”
The team is made up primarily of vaccinators, registered nurses and other medical staff from Fort Carson, Colorado.
The Department of Defense and FEMA are still discussing further deployments, but it is unclear how many of the agency’s initial proposal of 10,000 troops – or even of the 1,110 already authorized – will ultimately participate in the mega-creation effort. vaccination sites. FEMA is leading the whole-of-government effort to increase the number of immunizations across the country.
A FEMA spokesperson said the agency strives to meet all requests for federal personnel from states and localities based on greatest need, but the spokesperson did not respond to the number of outstanding requests that FEMA was currently processing. The agency has not publicly said what the state is already asking for.
“FEMA is working to determine where the next shifts are needed most based on state requirements, and the DoD plans to move 100 more people in the next few days and hundreds more in the following weeks,” the door said. -speak.
Beyond the initial California-only team, there is no indication when the 10,000-troop balance initially discussed could be incorporated into the effort, officials said.
The request was based on President Joe Biden’s initiative to increase immunization levels to 1.5 million per day during his first 100 days in office. FEMA has estimated that a deployment of 10,000 military personnel to potentially 100 immunization mega-hubs across the country could facilitate nearly 500,000 additional immunizations per day, although FEMA noted that increasing those numbers would ” incremental”.
Even though the administration has hit the 1.5 million figure in recent days, the effort is still underway.
“No one is talking about ending the effort,” said a defense official directly familiar with the planning.
But the size and composition of the different teams can change. Instead of the larger team of 222 headed to California, smaller military teams of 25 each are being assembled to deploy to locations in New Jersey to meet state demands, according to a defense official. These personnel are not expected to come from the pool of 1,110, but rather from another already existing allocation of troops assigned to the medical needs of Covid-19.
The Pentagon is making it clear that it is waiting for FEMA to tell it where the agency wants troops.
“The DoD expects FEMA to request additional DoD support as new sites for national immunization centers are identified,” Pentagon spokesman Chris Mitchell told CNN.
The availability of vaccines also poses limitations. Vaccine availability informs when, where, and the level of Department of Defense support FEMA needs, Mitchell said.
The FEMA spokesperson said that “vaccine supply is a factor to consider; it is not the only determining factor of the success of the mission ”.
In addition, the National Guard has 23,000 soldiers on duty, providing vaccines and carrying out tests and screenings and other forms of assistance related to Covid-19. The Army Corps of Engineers is working with FEMA to create community vaccination centers with walk-in, drive-through and mobile vaccination capabilities.
CNN’s Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.
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