“At this juncture, it is time for the uniformed services to operate beyond their mandate. Hence, our people must prepare for any challenge that the country might face to contain Coronavirus spread,” said Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat on the role of the armed forces in the ongoing fight against the pandemic COVID-19.
In keeping with this, the armed forces are carrying on with strong support from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and other organisations under the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The doctors, nurses, paramedics and other staff of the armed forces, who are in the frontline battling this dreaded virus, have indeed been doing a commendable job from running six quarantine facilities at Mumbai, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Hindan, Manesar and Chennai as also the hospitals.
Besides the all out efforts of the armed forces, its various organisations like the Armed Forces Medical Services, DRDO, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Indian Coast Guard (ICG), Cantonment Boards, National Cadet Corps (NCC) are contributing in their own way to fight this pandemic and geared to meet the requirements for testing patients, who are virtually flooding all health centres in the country.
An important priority would be how to mitigate the situation for those who were worst affected within the defence ecosystem whether it is defence industry or personnel.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with top officials of the Ministry and the armed forces have been reviewing the situation regularly.
With no let up in the COVID-19 cases as also deaths due to the virus, military hospitals have been asked to establish isolation wards and separate Out Patient Departments (OPDs) for screening of symptomatic cases to prevent avoidable transmission.
Following various advisories by the government on COVID-19, the Army Headquarters has issued detailed instructions on preparations and emergency response to tackle the virus. Personnel have been asked to avoid and postpone social gatherings and places outside cantonments.
In the history of the nation’s armed forces, it is probably for the first time that such a massive mobilisation of the armed forces has taken place in peace time. It is because this virus is causing more deaths than what even a war could have done and it is an enemy which is silent and lurking in a manner that no vaccine has been found till date to eradicate it.
Under the circumstances, considering the havoc that it has wreaked in European nations like Italy, Spain, France, Germany and England as also in the United States of America, there is no guarantee that it can be so easily checked in such a vast country like India where people live cheek by jowl.
Few ways which are being adopted in the hope that it would be able to check the rapid spread is stay indoors and social distancing which means keep a distance of at least five to six feet, and making wearing of masks mandatory which many states have done.
Meanwhile, credit needs to be given to DRDO, Which has asked its over 8,000 scientists and technical staff in more than 15 of its laboratories to come with solutions and are working with the industry for volume production of critical supplies.
More than 50 organisations are coming forward to work with the DRDO who are sharing technologies with these organisations at zero cost.
DRDO has developed a bio suit to keep the medical, paramedical and other personnel to manage and evacuate the casualties in the event of radiological emergencies. Each suit costs Rs 7,000.
DRDO has also developed Portable Backpack Area Sanitisation Equipment and Trolley Mounted Large Area Sanitisation Equipment for effective sanitisation of public spaces.
With ventilators being the need of the hour to help COVID-19 patients, innovation is on by DRDO to create ‘multi patient ventilator’ wherein several patients can be supported by a single ventilator. Around 5,000 ventilators will be produced in the first month and 10,000 subsequently.
DRDO has also developed Five layer N99 masks with two layers of nano mesh with capacity to make 10,000 N99 masks per day as also body suits for medical and paramedical staff.
The IAF too has been playing a stellar role in the efforts to fight this pandemic carrying out two evacuation missions by C 17 aircraft to the epicenter Wuhan in China and to Tehran in Iran.
As part of its efforts to aid the civilian authorities, two quarantine facilities are operational, one at Air Force Station, Hindan, which is looking after 58 people flown in from Tehran and another at Air Force Station Tambaram which is looking after 113 citizens from Malaysia.
Seven other quarantine facilities have been kept in a state of readiness in Bhatinda, Devlali, Dindigul, Chakeri, Agra, Gorakhpur and Bangalore. Air Force Hospital Jaisalmer is the reporting hospital for the Indian Army quarantine facility at Jaisalmer.
Indian Navy too is setting up isolation facilities in all the commands including outlying units.
Teams of Battle Field Nursing Assistants (BFNA) comprising non-medical personnel have been readied to help medical staff to fight the spread of deadly virus. Training of Indian Navy personnel is in progress.
Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) earmarked 28 Service Hospitals as COVID hospitals for managing purely Coronavirus cases. This will include Armed Forces as well as civilian patients transferred from state health authorities in case their capacity is overwhelmed.
As Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar aptly summed up the role of the armed forces when he said “they have always played pivotal role in mitigating any national calamity plaguing the country from time to time.”
– The writer is a senior journalist and media consultant. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda.
