KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri National Guard is scaling back its assistance with facilitating mass COVID-19 vaccinations clinics, Gov. Mike Parson announced Thursday.
Parson cited a decrease in demand for the COVID-19 vaccine in Missouri during recent weeks as the reason for reducing the Missouri National Guard's involvement.
According to Parson, the Missouri National Guard has assisted in administering more than 320,000 vaccines, which represents roughly 8% of the doses administered in the state.
There have been more than 4 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses administered, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Services dashboard.
The Missouri National Guard assisted with a two-day vaccine event in March at Arrowhead Stadium, where more than 8,000 people were vaccinated.
“We are in a far different situation today than we were just a couple months ago," Parson said in a statement about the decision. :In the beginning, vaccine demand far outweighed vaccine supply. Now, we are seeing the reverse of that, and the need for large scale vaccination events has lessened. Missouri is in a good place on the vaccine front, and that is thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of our National Guard members to get vaccines into the arms of Missourians. We couldn't be more thankful for the hard work of these dedicated men and women over the past several months.”
Parson also said that 80% percent of Missourians have access to a vaccine within of five miles of them, though only 38.1% have initiated vaccination so far and roughly 30% have completed the vaccination process, according to the state health department.
A full withdrawal of the National Guard is expected June 1.
