Pentagon announced Friday that it has approved the deployment of 1,000 active-duty troops to help deliver COVID-19 shots to California starting next week.
According to two defense officials, the White House will make the official announcement Friday morning.
The plan is for five teams of troops with 222 personnel to travel to various sites across the country. The teams would be able to provide about 6,000 shots a day. The troops will be deployed withing 96 hours, according to ABC7.
FEMA and the Defense Department have been in discussions about sending 10,000 troops who can deliver and administer vaccines. Eventually, the goal is for the military to be able to dive 450,000 vaccines per days.
National Guard leaders told The Associated Press that they are now considering training additional Guard members to give shots, so that they can also expand vaccinations in more remote and rural portions of their states.
City News Service also reported Friday that another large-scale COVID-19 vaccination site will open in SoCal, the result of a partnership among various health organizations aimed at providing vaccines to particularly vulnerable residents, beginning with those age 75 and over.
The site at Cal Poly Pomona is one of two opening in California, with the second located at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Organizers said each site will ultimately have the capacity to administer up to 10,000 doses per day, rivaling Los Angeles' mass vaccination site at Dodger Stadium.
The sites are being opened by a consortium comprising Kaiser Permanente, Adventist Health, the California Medical Association, Dignity Health and Futuro Health, with coordinating assistance from the California Primary Care Association and the American Red Cross.
The troop deployment came as Biden invoked a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act to help bolster manufacturing of vaccines, at-home COVID-19 testing kits and nitrile gloves used by health care workers and vaccinators. Referred to as the DPA, the law in essence allows the government to assign missions to private companies during national emergencies.
Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this story.
