NEW DELHI: Taking steps to contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), the Indian armed forces are working not only to mitigate the cases from rising but have also got ready to meet the requirements of future, in the aid of civilian authorities.
While the forces are already running four quarantine facilities, 10 more are being raised. The Ministry of Defence in its release said, "More quarantine facilities are being readied and may be made operational within 48-72 hours, if needed."
The facilities are a tri-services effort of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The four facilities in operation at the moment are at Manesar and Jaisalmer, run by Army; at Mumbai, run by the Navy and at Hindon, run by Air Force.
The ten getting readied are located at Jodhpur (Army), Kolkata (Army), Chennai (Army), Visakhapatnam (Navy), Kochi (Navy), Dundigal near Hyderabad (IAF), Bengaluru (IAF), Kanpur (IAF), Jaisalmer (IAF), Jorhat (IAF) and Gorakhpur (IAF).
Indian Air Force (IAF) has evacuated hundreds of Indian nationals and many other people belonging to friendly countries like Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, US, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa and Peru from COVID-19 affected countries such as China, Japan, Italy, Iran, etc.
As a precautionary measure, these evacuated persons are being kept under quarantine for a period of fourteen days. Army, Navy and Air Force have set up quarantine facilities named Wellness Centres at various locations to provide credible response to COVID-19.
These centres are fully equipped and functional facilities helping inmates to undertake the mandatory quarantine period under the supervision of skilled medical authorities. Soldiers have volunteered to provide care and support to our countrymen returning from overseas.
Centres are working in total synergy with the civilian authorities to ensure proper care to all evacuated citizens. Prophylactic measures are also being taken to prevent the spread of the contagion.