The Federal Emergency Management Agency is implementing or supporting vaccination sites in at least 11 states after President Joe Biden ordered the government to go to war on its mission to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer.
The states are Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, according to an FEMA official. A website is also being set up in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the official said.
Four of those states, Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Washington, have hosted nine federally supported vaccination sites since Wednesday, the agency said in a statement. FEMA personnel were being deployed to several other states, the agency said.
“An additional team across the country is supporting virtually, while the US National Guard Bureau is providing personnel, administrative and logistical support for vaccination sites in 22 states,” the document said.
The agency, which has budgeted $ 1.2 billion for its Covid-19 mission, said it will reimburse states that send their National Guard troops to help with vaccination sites.
Federal assistance will also go to the states’ mobile and instant vaccination clinics, FEMA said.
On Friday, Johnson & Johnson said its own Covid-19 vaccine, which would be the third vaccine in the U.S. arsenal against the virus, could be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization as early as next week.
Last week, Biden ordered FEMA to start setting up vaccination sites.
The president on Monday set a goal of 150 million vaccines in his first 100 days in office. He acknowledged that to do this, he will need to lead a major local federal effort.
“It will be a logistical challenge that goes beyond anything we’ve tried in this country, but I think we can do that,” he said.
