A member of the National Guard assists people for vaccination at Yankee Stadium in New York (EFE)
The Pentagon authorized that more than 1,000 active duty military personnel support the vaccination plan against COVID-19 in the United States, which with more than 26.7 million cases is the country most affected in the world by the pandemic.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has approved a request for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said the adviser to the White House coronavirus response group, Andy Slavitt. The official indicated that a first contingent would arrive in the next 10 days to California, the state that with 3.3 million infected heads the statistics of infections in the country.
Slavitt further stated that the Army will help FEMA install up to 100 mass vaccination points with the capacity to vaccinate thousands of people a day.
According to a document from the Department of Defense released by local media, About 1,100 active duty members will be divided into teams of 222 people to join in the vaccination tasks.
(Reuters)
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, in office since January 20, set himself a goal in his first 100 days to have 100 million vaccinations, a figure that later rose to 150 million.
Increase the production of medical supplies
Also that Friday, the supplies coordinator of the White House coronavirus response team, Tim Manning, announced that they are taking action to move the manufacture of surgical gloves to the United States.
“We depend almost 100% on foreign manufacturers to export surgical gloves to our country that protect health workers, and that is unacceptable,” said the official, quoted by the Washington Post, and stated that they are using all authorities to fix it.
Specifically, Manning explained, the Biden Administration would use the authority of the Defense Production Act to help build plants that make raw materials for gloves, with a view to enabling the country to produce more than 1,000 million units per month.
He also indicated that they are exploring ways to increase the production of N95 masks.
In addition, Manning anticipated that, under the Defense Production Law, they will seek Raise the manufacturing of coronavirus tests that can be used at home. “The country is way behind what we need in testing, particularly rapid tests at home that would allow us to get back to normal activities, like work and school,” Manning said.
The White House estimates that the country will have 61 million such tests available in the summer.
According to the independent count of the Johns Hopkins University, the United States this Friday counted 26.7 million positive cases and 456,451 deaths due to the pandemic.
(With information from EFE)
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