The Pentagon is weighing whether to send troops to mass vaccination centers to assist with federal inoculation efforts.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency submitted the request to the Defense Department on Wednesday. One of the options that the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security are exploring is sending up to 10,000 troops to vaccine hubs, CNN reported.
“The department is evaluating the request, and what kinds of support it can provide. Given the significance of the request, it will be reviewed urgently but carefully to determine what DOD assets can safely be made available to support the effort,” said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby in a statement.
“As Secretary [of Defense Lloyd] Austin has said, DOD is committed to do as much as it possibly can to assist the whole-of-government effort against Covid-19,” Kirby added.
FEMA is aiming to establish up to 100 federally run vaccine sites nationwide by as early as February. Max Rose, Austin’s senior adviser for the virus, said the Pentagon is “actively considering” sending troops to the mass vaccination sites, according to the New York Times.
The Pentagon was reportedly evaluating different options about how to help with President Biden’s plan to vaccinate up to 1.5 million people per day in the coming months. Biden announced that his administration will purchase an extra 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccines for delivery over the summer.
Biden will make mitigating the effects of the pandemic a top priority for his administration, he said. There have been 25.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, resulting in nearly 431,000 deaths.
