Stepping up their efforts to fight coronavirus pandemic, the armed forces have deployed six warships and 50 aircraft and helicopters as standby for relief and rescue operations within the country and in neighbouring nations. Moreover, five viral testing laboratories of the Services capable of COVID-19 test are now part of the national grid against the disease.
Giving this update here on Friday, defence ministry officials said the five laboratories include Army Hospital (Research & Referral), Delhi Cantonment, Air Force Command Hospital, Bangalore, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Command Hospital (Central Command), Lucknow and Command Hospital (Northern Command), Udhampur. In a bid to augment capabilities, six more armed forces hospitals are being equipped shortly with the resources to begin COVID-19 testing, they said.
As regards rescue and relief efforts, officials said six warships and as many medical teams are now on standby to assist neighbouring countries including Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan when required. The ships with medical teams and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) bricks onboard are on standby for assistance at Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Mumbai.
Moreover, 28 fixed wing aircraft and 21 helicopters of the Indian Air Force (IAF) are on standby at various locations across the country for transporting essential supplies, officials said. Transport fleet of the IAF is being used to assist in transportation of essential supplies, medicines and medical equipment and so far, approximately 60 tonnes of stores have been airlifted to various parts of the country.
An IAF C-130J Super Hercules aircraft has airlifted 6.2 tonnes of medicines to Maldives on Thursday. Earlier, between March 13-21 an Army Medical Corps team consisting of five doctors, two nursing officers and seven paramedics was deployed in Maldives for “capacity building measures and assist in setting up their own testing, treatment and quarantine facilities.” An army medical team is likely to leave for Nepal for the same purpose shortly.
Besides this, the Armed Forces are running six quarantine facilities at Mumbai, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Hindon, Manesar and Chennai. These centres have so far catered to 1,7037 of which 403 have been released so far. Three positive COVID cases – two from Hindan and one from Manesar – were referred to Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital for further treatment. In addition, 15 other facilities are being kept ready as standby for use, if required.
Dedicated COVID-19 facilities including High Dependency Units, Intensive Care Unit beds are being prepared in 51 hospitals of the Armed Forces across the country. Some of these facilities are located at Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Dundigal near Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kanpur, Jaisalmer, Jorhat and Gorakhpur.
Also, special flights of IAF have evacuated people and carried medical supplies. A C-17 comprising crew, medical team and support staff has carried 15 tonnes of medical supplies to China and airlifted 125 persons, including five children comprising Indian nationals and few citizens from friendly countries on its return.
The C-17 Globemaster III has made another journey, this time to Iran and brought back 58 stranded Indians that included 31 women and two children.
The aircraft has also brought 529 samples for COVID-19 investigation.