Employees working at the Pentagon Reservation will all be able to get vaccinated at no cost against COVID-19 through an agency-run vaccination clinic, according to a memorandum issued by Washington Headquarters Services Director Thomas M. Muir Feb. 18.
“All Pentagon workforce members are eligible to receive the vaccine at the Pentagon, including active duty, National Guard, and Reserve military forces assigned or on temporary duty to the Pentagon Reservation; government federal civilians assigned or on temporary duty to the Pentagon Reservation; Non-Appropriated Fund employees assigned to the Pentagon Reservation; and federal government contractor personnel subject to DoD policy, guidance, and applicable contract provisions,” Muir wrote.
The vaccines will be administered in a phased approach based on employee roles and demographics:
- Phase 1A – Emergency department, urgent care and first responder personnel, including those that are deploying to support COVID-19 response operations.
- Phase 1B – Personnel deploying outside the U.S. or preparing to deploy in the next three months; TRICARE beneficiaries aged 75 or older; and frontline employees working in education, child care, eligible defense manufacturing, DoD postal services, DoD public transit workers, commissary, and other installation food services.
- Phase 1C - Eligible beneficiaries 65-74 years old; younger than 65 with increased risk for severe illness; and OSD, Defense Agencies, Field Activities, and Military Service and Reserve Component personnel designated as key, essential, or mission essential.
- Phase 2 – All other Pentagon Reservation personnel not covered by the earlier phases.
According to the memo, the Pentagon began working through Phase 1B on Feb. 1.
“Your individual service/component representatives have been provided a required number of doses aligned with the DoD population schema for each of the Phases 1A, 1B, 1C, and 2. These representatives will work with supervisors to schedule your vaccination once available for your respective Phase. The Pentagon Reservation workforce should work through their supervisors to ensure scheduling for the vaccine depending upon supply availability,” Muir wrote.
“We expect to offer an automated solution within the next several weeks for the Pentagon Reservation workforce to use in order to make specific reservations for first and second dose vaccination shots offered by the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic at the PLCC. Supervisors should check with service/component points of contract for the URL and reservation system guidance within the next several weeks.”
Vaccines will be administered at the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, with morning hours dedicated to second doses and the rest of the day dedicated to first doses.
“Approximately 250 new doses a day are anticipated initially. Our goal is to provide 1,000 or more doses each day once the supply of vaccine allows,” Muir wrote.
Employees that have been notified that they will receive a dose on a particular day should arrive with a completed Defense Health Agency Form 207, fully masked and wearing clothing that allows access to their upper arm. They will be asked to check in on the Mezzanine level during the hours for their first dose by providing a Common Access Card or other identification and an email address with which they will be notified of their second dose appointment.
After receiving the vaccine, employees will be required to remain under observation for 15 minutes and notify staff of any ill effects.
Employees that are feeling unwell on the day of the appointment will have to reschedule with their supervisor.
The memo also encourages employees to seek out vaccination outside of work if they end up qualifying for an appointment earlier than they would under the Pentagon’s schedule.
Vaccination is voluntary, though the memo reminds employees that doing so will serve to protect their fellow workers and reduce the likelihood of life-threatening complications from COVID.
The agency announced earlier this week that it had already administered nearly a million vaccine doses to civilians and servicemembers across the country.
Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.
