The U.S. military will mandate COVID-19 vaccination for all troops by mid-September.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memo to troops Monday he had consulted with military leaders and medical professionals about the mandate, prompting him to ask President Joe Biden to approve it.

"Based on these consultations and additional discussions with leaders of the White House COVID Task Force, I want you to know that I will seek the president's approval to make the vaccines mandatory no later than mid-September, or immediately upon the U.S. Food and Drug Agency licensure, whichever comes first," Austin said in the memo.

President Joe Biden said in a statement, also on Monday, that he "strongly support[s]" Austin's plan to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of required vaccinations by mid-September.

"Secretary Austin and I share an unshakable commitment to making sure our troops have every tool they need to do their jobs as safely as possible," Biden said. "These vaccines will save lives. Period. They are safe. They are effective."

In the memo, Austin didn't rule out acting sooner if needed given the rise of the Delta variant.

"To defend this Nation, we need a healthy and ready force," Austin said in the memo. "I strongly encourage all DoD military and civilian personnel — as well as contractor personnel — to get vaccinated now and for military service members to not wait for the mandate."

He added that public reporting suggests the FDA could fully license the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by early next month.

In general, active-duty troops have a higher vaccination rate than the U.S. population.

Half of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated to date, according to Bloomberg COVID-19 Tracker, and 58.7% have received at least one dose.

Austin tweeted last month that 70% of active-duty troops have received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccine and that 62% of active-duty service members were fully vaccinated.

Those vaccination rates lagged behind the Pentagon's goal earlier this year for all troops to be fully vaccinated by last month, Military.com reported.

In the military alone, over 1 million service members and 299,050 Department of Defense civilian employees have been fully vaccinated, according to the Pentagon.

Since the pandemic began, there have been over 300,000 COVID-19 cases and 385 deaths among military personnel, civilians, dependents and contractors, Pentagon totals show.

Anderson AFB sends 77 freezers to Vietnam to store COVID-19 vaccine
 Washington DC (UPI) Aug 9, 2021 –

Anderson Air Force Base's 36th Contracting Squadron said Monday it has finalized a $691,000 contract to provide Vietnam with COVID-19 relief.

Under the contract, the squadron has partnered with the government of Vietnam to purchase and send 77 ultra-low temperature freezers, worth $691,000, the base announced in a press release.

One unit will be distributed to each of Vietnam's 63 provinces and 14 larger units will be provided at the national level for COVID-19 vaccine storage.

The contract fulfills the government of Vietnam and the Vietnamese Ministry of Health's official request for the storage units based on their acquisition of 31 million Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines due to arrive by Aug. 30.

"This acquisition shows the commitment of the U.S. to the health and safety of Vietnamese by providing humanitarian relief to them during the COVID-19 pandemic," Staff Sgt. Christian Luevano, 36th Contracting Squadron contracting officer, said in the press release.

While it usually takes from 45 to 120 days to coordinate and process a contract of this amount, Luevano said that his team worked nights and weekends, across "different time zones," to get the contract finalized in under two weeks.

Among the partners who helped the squadron seal the deal, was Major Wei Yuan, chief of defense cooperation at the the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, who identified mutual benefits.

"Not only will it enhance Vietnam's capability to distribute vaccines with special storage requirements, it demonstrates the United States' commitment on working with partners across the globe to end the devastating public health and economic effects of this pandemic," Yuan said in the press release.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Vietnam has recorded over 215,000 cases and nearly 3,400 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The United States has recorded the highest number of cases and highest number of deaths worldwide at over 35.7 million cases and over 610,000 deaths.

Globally, COVID-19 has infected over 203 million people and killed over 4.2 million.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Army announced deployment of 222 soldiers from Fort Carson, Colo., to Los Angeles to support a state-run, federally supported COVID-19 vaccination center there — which was among a multitude of efforts the U.S. military took up in the United States.

The U.S. Air Force has also previously provided COVID-19 relief abroad, including providing a mobile field hospital to Suriname last month and another hospital to Jamaica in September.

Last year, U.S. Southern Command delivered three field hospitals to Costa Rica.

Back in December, the Defense Logistics Agency announced that it was ready to ship COVID-19 vaccine doses to Defense Department employees outside the continental United States.

According to the Pentagon, the DLA has been involved in COVID-19 relief throughout the pandemic and has provided more than $2.5 billion in supplies ranging from face masks, to ventilators, to test kits.