The federal government is asking four states and one city to draft plans for how they would distribute a coronavirus vaccine when limited doses become available, possibly as early as this fall.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Defense Department and other agencies began working with officials in California, Florida, Minnesota, North Dakota and Philadelphia this week to develop plans to transport and store vaccine doses, and to prioritize who would receive them.

Those plans, which will take into account each location’s racial and ethnic makeup, population density and other factors, will be shared with other states to help with their own vaccine distribution planning. The discussions with states this week offer some of the first details of the federal government’s plans at a time when information shared by the administration has been limited and often confusing.

The race for a vaccine continues to unfold amid the backdrop of a crippling pandemic that shows few signs of abating.

As of Friday, at least 164,000 Americans have died after becoming infected, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. The seven-day average for deaths remains above 1,000 per day, where it has remained since July 27. On average, more than 50,000 new U.S. cases have been diagnosed per day since July 6. On Friday, California became the first state to report more than 600,000 coronavirus cases.

The United States has begun planning the largest vaccination campaign ever undertaken, requiring extraordinary coordination, planning and communication. U.S. officials said this week that Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s effort to expedite development of coronavirus countermeasures, is on track to deliver tens of millions of vaccine doses by January. ...