Military to Open Vaccination Centers in Florida, Philadelphia

U.S. military personnel next week will begin administering vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 at four mass inoculation sites in Florida and another in Philadelphia, adding to other sites already operating in Texas, New York and California.

The five new centers will nearly double the number of facilities exclusively or overwhelmingly staffed by soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.

A 222-member team will start operating on Wednesday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Center City Philadelphia with additional teams setting up in Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville, the Military Times reported.

Military units began distributing doses at three sites in Texas, including Houston and Dallas, and two in the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn on Wednesday, joining the one at California State University, Los Angeles.

The four Florida sites as well as the two New York facilities are expected to have the capacity to inoculate as many as 3,000 people a day, while the Houston operation is projected to be able to vaccinate as many as 6,000 daily.

The Los Angeles site is already up to at least 5,800 a day.

Additionally, troops are supporting four facilities in New Jersey and one in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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