Government Executive email DHS will start the COVID-19 vaccines in eight locations, but officials hope to expand the offering nationwide. Senior Correspondent The Homeland Security Department has begun vaccinating its employees against COVID-19, joining five other federal agencies that have received distributions for internal use. DHS has partnered with the Veterans Affairs Department to get the shots into employees' arms, so far setting up vaccination sites at eight VA facilities. The two departments reached an agreement to use DHS’ vaccine allotment provided through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but with VA staff administering the actual shots. VA has already received its own distribution of nearly 940,000 vaccine doses and has initiated inoculations for more than 250,000. It has so far used about one-in-four of the vaccines it has received, lagging behind the one-in-three used by the nation as a whole. A VA spokesman said it has used 340,000 of the 600,000 first doses it has received, and more than 80% of its clinical providers have received at least one dose. All told, between VA, the Bureau of Prisons, the Defense Department and the Indian Health Service, federal agencies have received nearly 1.7 million doses and begun vaccinating about 484,000 individuals. That total includes both federal employees and the constituents those agencies serve.