The Pentagon by the end of Tuesday (was shutttering) all but five of the COVID-19 mass vaccination sites it opened alongside the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as the demand for the shot slows, according to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) top spokesman.
Earlier this year, as many as 35 mass vaccination sites were operated by thousands of active-duty and National Guard troops, but the number has since dropped to eight, with three of those locations to close by Tuesday’s end, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters.
The vaccine centers, in coordination with FEMA and state and local officials, “will be mission-complete or will begin reducing personnel as the sites reassess the size of the DOD vaccination support teams needed,” Kirby said.
The sites have helped administer more than 16 million vaccines, he added.
About 454 military personnel were still working at FEMA sites in in New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, Minnesota, Kentucky, Ohio, Colorado and Louisiana, with the latter three locations to wrap up operations on Tuesday. ...
