ATLANTA-- The Department of Defense has supported the state-run, federally-supported Atlanta Community Vaccination Center since March 24, 2021, and administered the 100,000th dose of the COVID vaccine April 13, 2021.
Soldiers assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia, supplement the vaccine process by providing licensed medical professionals and enlisted personnel within specific career fields who are trained and authorized by DoD to administer vaccines. The DoD also provided additional active duty personnel to support mission requirements.
“They started vaccinating here in January, we were able to augment that capacity and increase it substantially to allow us to vaccinate a lot more people in this area,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steven Chadwick, Vaccination Support Team commander.
While the DoD has administered 100,000 doses of the COVID vaccine to Georgians, this is truly a whole-of-government effort with support from various federal, state, local and partner civilian agencies.
“It’s an important milestone because it’s really the combination of all the folks that have enabled this operation including the federal, state and local partners,” said Chadwick. “They're all here working together for one common goal- which is to vaccinate as many people as possible in the metro Atlanta area.”
The DoD’s unique, large-scale logistical and medical capabilities play an integral role in the government’s fight against COVID-19.
“Being able to bring the active duty forces in is basically a force multiplier for this operation,” said Mark Sexton, Deputy Director of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
“The best part here is being able to bring resources to the citizens of Georgia, and the metro Atlanta population specifically... helps to target a lot of folks that were not able to get to normal vaccination sites.”
“I’m really proud of the Soldiers supporting the VST, they worked a lot of hard hours, a lot of long hours, and they’ve done a phenomenal job representing the DoD and the U.S. Army,” Chadwick said. “We joined this whole government team that's been working here since January, and we’ve been privileged to supplement their capabilities… hitting the 100,000th administered dose mark, we’re just hoping for a lot more.”
Moving forward, the Atlanta CVC maintains its goal of administering up to 42,000 doses a week through mid-May 2021.
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