Use of Armed forces to fight COVID-19, CO-JEET, CO-JEET plan, Recent powers given to the armed forces, Role of various wings of the armed forces in tackling Covid surge, Why States are demanding help of Armed Forces?, Delhi also needs the Army's help in procuring
Treating the current coronavirus wave like a war, the armed forces have launched operation "CO-JEET" to aid anti-COVID-19 efforts, like strengthening medical infrastructure and oxygen supply chains, as well as take measures to ensure mental wellbeing of people.
The second COVID-19 wave has put huge pressure on the country's health system, with health facilities in several States reeling under a shortage of oxygen, medicines and equipment needed to treat coronavirus patients and also beds.
CO-JEET
"CO-JEET stands for co-workers of all the three services who will finally achieve 'Jeet' [victory] over COVID. The whole team is working in a very energised way because a soldier is trained to fight under adverse situations and he doesn't give up, we are not just doctors, we are soldiers," the Lt. General Kanitkar said.
Under the CO-JEET plan, personnel of the three wings of the armed forces — the Army, the Indian Air Force and the Navy — have been pressed into service to help restore oxygen supply chains, set up COVID beds and provide help to the civilian administration in its fight to control the pandemic," said the Lt. General kanitkar.
Like every healthcare worker in the country, teams of personnel of the armed forces are also working round the clock.
In addition to the ongoing COVID situation, most ex-servicemen are also coming to military hospitals. In cities like Delhi and Pune, we have made 400-500 bed hospitals purely for defence and ex-servicemen.
Efforts are also underway to provide additional beds across the country for mixed COVID-19 management, Lt. Gen. Kanitkar said.
Department of Defence has created a COVID-19 Crisis Management Committee and are working on it on a war footing together.
Besides medical therapy, patients need the reassurance that they will be fine and .in times of stress, if you have someone to talk to, it makes a huge difference.
Some of the military hospitals have their own oxygen generation plants. However, the present crises have shown that we need to further ramp up this facility and already around 46 oxygen generation plants are being installed at various places.
Besides this, we have a capacity of holding jumbo cylinders and of oxygen concentration from fields.
Recent powers given to the armed forces
To help the armed forces enhance their capabilities to help the country fight Covid-19 challenge, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh gave them emergency financial powers to establish quarantine facilities and hospitals.
Defence Ministry said Singh “invoked special provisions and granted Emergency Financial Powers to the Armed Forces to empower them and speed up their efforts in tide over the current” second wave of the pandemic.
The powers, it said, will help the formation commanders “to establish and operate quarantine facilities/hospitals and undertake procurement/repair of equipment/items/material/stores, besides provisioning of various services and works required to support the ongoing effort against the pandemic”.
The Corps Commanders and Area Commanders of the forces have been delegated powers upto Rs 50 lakh per case.
Defence Ministry had also approved delegating seminal emergency powers to the Director General Medical Services (Army/Navy/Air Force), and the heads of the medical branches. The directors general were given powers till Rs 5 crore, while Major General-rank officers and Brigadier and equivalent ranks officers got powers till Rs 3 and Rs 2 crore respectively.
Role of various wings of the armed forces in tackling Covid surge
The IAF carried out a number of sorties to bring oxygen cryogenic containers from abroad besides putting on track the supply chain for oxygen.
The Indian Navy transported liquid oxygen to places like Andaman and Nicobar Island, Lakshadweep.
The Indian Army gave its military coaches for carrying oxygen supplies to various parts of the country. Around 200 drivers were pressed into service for ensuring smooth supply of the oxygen.
Air Force has airlifted 39 containers with a capacity of 670 MT of oxygen in 23 sorties from other nations, while within India it has transported 87 containers with 1798 MT capacity in 124 sorties.
While the Navy had transported oxygen to Lakshadweep earlier, as part of Oxygen Express, it joined the Air Force on Friday in bringing containers from outside the country, as it is bringing 40 MT of oxygen in two cryogenic containers gifted by Bahrain.
Two more Navy ships are on their way to Bangkok and Singapore for similar missions, and the Navy said that “mission deployed Indian Naval warships will undertake shipment of liquid Oxygen filled cryogenic containers and associated medical equipment” to support the country’s fight against the pandemic.
The Navy has also sent a 76-member Naval Medical Contingent including 10 medical officers, 12 nursing officers, 34 paramedics and 20 Battle Field Nursing Assistants (BFNA) to Ahmedabad, to man the 900-bed Dhanvantari Covid Hospital and provide Covid care to the civil population.
Why States are demanding help of Armed Forces?
Delhi has sought the help of the Army to set up, operationalise and run some Covid-19 health facilities with about 10,000 oxygenated non-ICU beds and 1,000 ICU beds, as the Capital is grappling with the increase in the number of fresh infections, daily deaths, while people are running from pillar to post in search of oxygen and other medical essentials.
Since the entire health infrastructure machinery is overwhelmed with the management of the existing hospitals and the upcoming Covid hospitals, it will be a timely help to the people of Delhi if the ministry of defence, with the considerable resources at its command, is tasked with the responsibility to provide and man the additional Covid health facilities as per the current projections.
Delhi also needs the Army's help in procuring about 40,000 D Type medical oxygen cylinders.
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