Feb. 10 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden's coronavirus response team said in an update Wednesday that a new federal vaccination effort will open this month at three locations in Texas, as part of a program to get vaccines to vulnerable and underserved areas.
The vaccination "supersites" will open the week of Feb. 27, the White House COVID-19 Response Team said, adding that the aim is to get 10,000 "shots in arms per day" at each of the sites -- Fair Park in Dallas, NRG Stadium in Houston and AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said such sites are also planned for New York.
"Equity is the core of our strategy to put this pandemic behind us," he said.
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The new sites are part of a new community-focused vaccination effort the team announced on Tuesday.
Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, co-chair of the response team, said pop-up and mobile vaccination centers will be deployed in areas with higher numbers of COVID-19 cases.
Experts have said residents of underserved neighborhoods face multiple obstacles in getting access to the coronavirus vaccine.
At the briefing Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci encouraged pregnant women and younger people with underlying conditions, who have priority status to get the vaccine, to take the advantage of access in states where the 1-C tier of vaccination patients are eligible now.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, again warned that the British variant might be the dominant strain in the United States within weeks.
He also said antibodies activated by the existing vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are effective against the British variant.
Tests show that vaccines have so far been less effective against a South African variant, Fauci noted, but they still work in preventing hospitalization and serious illness.
He added that the South Africa strain is likely to become more frequent in the United States. So far, only a small number of cases of the variant have been found in U.S. patients.
