Photo By Staff Sgt. Edward Siguenza | U.S. Army Pfc. Marsden Shoemaker of the California Army National Guard’s 1st...... read more read more
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SACRAMENTO, Calif — “One shot, one arm at a time,” boasted U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Donald McKinney Jr., a California National Guard combat medic, while inoculating a Tehama County, California resident with the COVID-19 vaccine.
McKinney is with Cal Guard’s 143rd Field Artillery Regiment, Joint Task Force 749 (Hope). His Vaccination Support Team consistently vaccinated 500-900 people daily during its peak stretch, a major victory in this battle he said. Like McKinney’s group, dozens of other VSTs manned remote areas in Northern, Central and Southern California, giving residents better accessibility to vaccines. Rather than traveling to massive vaccination pods in large cities, Cal Guardsmen administered the doses in small communities.
“COVID definitely affected a lot of lives,” McKinney stated.
As of May 31, Cal Guard’s cumulative vaccines administered stood at nearly 1.5 million.
Last month Cal Guard reached significant accomplishments: Task Force Hope surpassed 500,000 vaccinations administered, while Cal Guard medical personnel at Oakland Ring Central Coliseum in Oakland, California, also assisted surpassing the half a million mark just before closing its temporary COVID-19 facility in late May. The landmarks reflect Cal Guard’s unequivocal support to the Golden State since its March 2020 activation at the pandemic start.
"It’s an honor to be able to help FEMA, state and local governments,” said U.S. Army Col. Robin Hoeflein, commander of 115th Regional Support Group and Joint Task Force 115. “We helped administer more than a million vaccinations just with these two elements alone. That shows just how much our Soldiers and Airmen are dedicated to this mission. They’re putting their own personal lives on hold to help our communities.”
The state of California didn’t receive COVID-19 vaccination supplies until mid-December 2020, according to the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). Distributing vaccinations started just before Christmas, but the first batch of vaccines went to healthcare workers on the front line, like doctors and nurses, including Cal Guard “first responders” such as medics and firefighters.
The Oakland site began vaccination operations Feb. 15, 2021. Cal Guard’s presence was there in the beginning, where hundreds of Soldiers and Airmen worked with local and state personnel to inoculate people in droves.
Three weeks after opening, the Oakland site vaccinated more than 132,000 residents, per Federal Emergency Management Agency statistics (https://www.fema.gov/fact-sheet).
“The key to reaching the 500,000 goal was that (Cal Guard) was allowed to remain in place once Cal OES finished its portion of the operation,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Leroy Cisneros, Oakland Community Vaccination Center (CVC) officer in charge. “Alameda County would not have reached the 500,000 as quickly without us.”
Along with San Jose and San Francisco, Oakland (population 433,000) is one of the largest cities in the San Francisco Bay Area which houses about 8 million of California’s nearly 40 million residents. But in a mere three months, Cal Guard administered more than half a million doses to residents of Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
"We are thankful to our partners who advocated to make sure that this site, a vital tool in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in our county, continues serving East Bay communities that need it most," said Colleen Chawla, director of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, the organization that worked with Cal Guard to provide the vaccine to up to 5,000 people a day.
“The most important thing that happened,” Cisneros added, “that allowed that many people to get vaccinated, was the continuity of effort by all parties involved. We had been there since the beginning. We knew every aspect of the mission and had support from Sacramento and Washington D.C.”
Task Force 749 — a conglomerate of Army and Air Guardsmen and State personnel — consisted of more than 500 medics who dispersed into three elements: VSTs, Regional Medical Strike Teams and Collection Transport Analysis Teams that assisted communities throughout California. Aside from sending teams into small communities, the “Hope” task force set up a pair of megapods: Sacramento’s Cal Expo and Long Beach’s Convention Center.
Like Oakland, the facilities catered to drive through operations. Recipients stayed in vehicles as medics dispensed vaccinations, and walk-ins were directed to adjacent tents to receive theirs.
Long Beach and Cal Expo in Sacramento began their massive quests to distribute vaccinations in late January 2021. Cal Guard ceased Cal Expo operations in early May 2021.
“This definitely wasn’t an easy operation,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Phillip Thomas, Task Force 749 commander, on the Cal Expo mission that saw Cal Guardsmen inoculate 700-900 people a day, at peak period. “When you look at the numbers, 500,000 is a lot of vaccinations. That reflects every Soldier and Airman’s ability to respond to what they needed to do.”
Thomas, who at one point amassed more than 900 Guardsmen under his task force, credited local agencies — such as the California Department of Public Health — with leading Cal Guard’s success.
“County level resources coming together, and a grassroots effort to do something that no one has done in our lifetime,” Thomas explained. “This is a true testament to our Soldiers and Airmen. What makes me most proud is a lot of these people were hurting from the pandemic economically or health wise. But our troops stepped up, solved problems, then went 100 miles per hour after resolving problems.”
On May 21, California had vaccinated nearly 16 million of its 40 million population, said U.S. Army 1st Lt. Samual Lao, 749th medical operations officer. Five hundred thousand may not be a credible number, but “that 500,000 inoculations were performed by under 250 medics and providers,” Lao explained. Those Cal Guard medics spent hours after hours, working late into shifts, to assure people received the doses.
“What is more significant is that these numbers reflect service provided to the elderly and most vulnerable of Californians who would have had to wait longer for their choice to protect themselves if it was not for contributions and efforts of the services members on this mission,” added Lao.
The CTAT, RMST and VST teams supported more than 42 counties with testing, medical and vaccination needs, he concluded.
“At the end of the day, what I saw that blew me away more than anything is the working relationship that Cal Guard built with county health officials,” stated U.S. Army Lt. Col. Abraham Viramontes, 749th deputy commander. “That really made the biggest impact: The National Guard teaming with health officials to produce what we produced. We created strong teams throughout the state.”
Northern California CTAT teams, commanded by U.S Army Maj. Mikhail Karton, physicians assistant, injected anywhere from 900 to 1,400 people a day during peak period, he explained. In mid-May a critical operations site in Yuba City closed its doors after state health officials deemed it reached its goal.
“It seems like we’re winning the fight against COVID,” Karton added. “Primary mission was to vaccinate everyone who wants a vaccine."
MORE THAN 1 MILLION
Per California’s official COVID-19 website (http://www.covid19.ca.gov), more than 22 million Californians have received full or parts of vaccination, with 18 million plus (about 65 percent of population) fully vaccinated. Since last year, the coronavirus has killed more than 62,000 Californians.
State leaders, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, plan to fully reopen California June 15, 2021.
“It’s really important for people to get vaccinated so we can all get back to our normal lives,” said U.S. Army Pfc. Ripanjeet Kaur, a combat medic with the 143rd Military Police Battalion and one of hundreds of JTF 749 inoculators. “We know how 2020 was, when the whole pandemic started. The whole state, the entire country and even the world went into lockdown. People couldn’t go anywhere, businesses closed and the economy was down. And now that we have the vaccine, it’s important for people to get it so they can come out and see the world.”
One shot, one arm at a time.
| Date Taken: | 06.01.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 06.02.2021 15:59 |
| Story ID: | 397888 |
| Location: | ROSEVILLE, CA, US |
| Hometown: | OAKLAND, CA, US |
| Hometown: | SACRAMENTO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 204 |
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