Armed forces working with civil authorities to tackle COVID-19

At a time of such an enormous crisis, when coronavirus cases are surging at a considerable speed, the armed forces are fighting tooth and nail to provide medical and logistics support to civil authorities in the fight against the pandemic.

Six quarantine facilities run by the Armed Forces are currently operational at Manesar, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Chennai, Hindan and Mumbai. A total of 1,463 people, including foreigners evacuated from these COVID-19 affected countries have been given housing and proper care at the centres. Out of all the people, 1,073 persons are presently under quarantine, which includes evacuees from Iran, Italy, Japan, and Malaysia.

Three hundred ninety evacuees from China, Japan, and IAF evacuation flight crew have been discharged following completion of their mandatory quarantine period.

Meanwhile, more quarantine facilities are being made operational within 48-72 hours at Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Dundigal near Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kanpur, Jaisalmer, Jorhat, and Gorakhpur.
 
Lt Gen Anup Banerji told the media that 28 Service Hospitals have been earmarked as COVID hospitals for managing coronavirus cases. 

“This will include Armed Forces as well as civilian patients transferred from state health authorities, in case their capacity is overwhelmed. He added that as of now, there are five hospitals across the Army, Navy and Air Force that can carry out the COVID test. These include Army Hospital Research and Referral, Delhi; Command Hospital Air Force, Bangalore and Armed Forces Medical College, Pune; Command Hospital (Central Command) Lucknow; Command Hospital (Northern Command) Udhampur. Six more hospitals are being equipped shortly with the resources to begin testing,“ he said.

“Isolation wards at peripheral hospitals have been activated at Army formations along Line of Control and Line of Actual Control. “Intensive information, education and communication campaigns are going on for serving personnel. Leave extension of those on leave as well as curtailment of leave to bare minimum have been imposed. Segregation facilities have been set up to observe troops already back from leave from various states,” he further added.

When asked about the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), he said that the armed forces have adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for use in hospitals. He further said that additional procurement is also being planned depending on how the crisis pans out in the coming weeks and months.

The Armed forces have also suggested to set up medical facilities in train coaches in case of any eventuality. Meanwhile, it stated that mandatory guidelines are being followed on social distancing, cancellation of courses and training, use of masks, preventive measures to be taken at workplace and guidelines on COVID surveillance and contact tracing.

In India, total number of positive cases has jumpted to 724.