FEMA trucks will help bring vaccine to rural Nevada

RENO — Help in getting vaccines into Nevada’s most rural corners is on its way, in the form of a pair of unassuming white trailers.

The trucks arrived in the Silver State on Monday via the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Each trailer is equipped with freezers that can store up to 8,000 doses of the one-dose Jansen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine. One will embark on a 13-stop trip through Northern Nevada, while the other will start in Las Vegas on Tuesday and trek through the rural parts of central and Southern Nevada.

“This can go a long way towards equity in making this available to everyone along the way,” Gov. Steve Sisolak said Monday during a press event showing off the trailers in Reno.

The trucks come as Nevada on Monday opened up vaccinations to all residents 16 and older, and the mobile units will be offering doses on a first-come, first-served basis.

Getting vaccines into the rural parts of the state and to Nevada’s 27 tribal nations has been a unique challenge for officials. People are significantly more spread out in those areas, and the state hasn’t been able to provide enough sites or people to administer the vaccines to reach those residents, Sisolak said.

“Everybody doesn’t have the luxury of having a vehicle for transport or living on a public transportation route,” Sisolak added.

The use of the Jansen vaccines in the mobile units will allow the state to be efficient in distributing vaccines in those harder to reach areas since those shots do not require a follow up booster.

The first stop for the northern trailer will be to the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony on Tuesday. After that, the trucks will wind their way through the northern parts of the state before finishing in West Wendover near the Utah border.

Arlan Melendez, chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, said that the units could be a big help for the vaccination efforts for Nevada’s 27 tribal nations.

While the elders of the Reno-Sparks tribal community have been vaccinated at high rates, the biggest roadblock has been the younger generation’s hesitancy to getting the shot, Melendez said.

Melendez said he thinks that these mobile events units will help encourage more members of the community to get the vaccine.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.