At the end of last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved 1,110 soldiers to help with vaccination efforts, but only a fraction of that number received orders. A team of 222 military personnel will head to a vaccination site in Los Angeles, said an FEMA spokesman, adding that they will arrive on Thursday and be operational on or around Monday.
“Getting vaccines – vaccines – in people’s arms 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 vaccinate thousands of people every day”.
The team consists mainly of vaccinators, registered nurses and other medical personnel from Fort Carson, Colorado.
The Department of Defense and FEMA are still discussing new developments, but it is now unclear how many of the agency’s initial proposal of 10,000 soldiers – or even the 1,110 already authorized – will eventually take part in the effort to establish vaccination mega-sites. FEMA is spearheading government-wide efforts to increase vaccination numbers across the country.
A FEMA spokesman said the agency is working to meet all requests from federal officials from states and locations based on the greatest need, but the spokesman did not respond to how many pending requests FEMA was currently handling. The agency has not publicly said what requests the state has made.
“FEMA is working to determine where the next teams are most needed based on state requirements, and the DoD expects to move 100 more employees in the next few days and hundreds more in the following weeks,” said the spokesman.
In addition to the initial team assigned to California, there is no indication as to when the balance of the 10,000 soldiers initially discussed could be included in the effort, officials said.
The request was based on President Joe Biden’s initiative to raise vaccination levels to 1.5 million a day for his first 100 days in office. FEMA estimated that a deployment of 10,000 military personnel to potentially 100 mega-vaccination centers across the country could facilitate nearly 500,000 additional vaccinations per day, although FEMA noted that the increase in these numbers would be “incremental”.
Although the government has reached the 1.5 million mark in recent days, the effort continues.
“No one is talking about ending the effort,” said a defense official directly familiar with the plan.
But the size and composition of the different teams can change. Instead of the larger team of 222 people heading to California, military teams of less than 25 people each are being assembled to move to locations in New Jersey to meet state requests, according to a defense official. These personnel are not expected to come from the 1,110 pool, but from another existing troop allocation designed to assist Covid-19’s medical needs.
The Pentagon is making it clear that it is waiting for FEMA to say where the agency wants troops.
“DoD expects FEMA to request additional DoD support as new sites for national vaccination centers are identified,” Pentagon spokesman Chris Mitchell told CNN.
The availability of the vaccine also has limitations. Vaccine availability informs the timing, location and level of Department of Defense support that FEMA requires, said Mitchell
The FEMA spokesman said that “vaccine supply is a factor to be considered; it is not the only factor that drives the success of the mission”.
Separately, the National Guard has 23,000 soldiers on duty providing vaccines, as well as conducting tests and screening and other assistance related to Covid-19. The Army Corps of Engineers is working with FEMA to establish community vaccination centers with walk-up, drive-thru and mobile vaccination capabilities.
CNN’s Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.