In a first, Army deploys medical team at civil coronavirus quarantine camp in Delhi

The Indian Army has so far only been operating out of quarantine camps set up by the armed service for coronavirus patients.

Army personnel distribute packaged food to the homeless in Chennai on 31 March 2020 | PTI

New Delhi: A medical team from the Army was deployed at the Narela quarantine camp in Delhi Friday where some of the coronavirus-infected patients from the Tablighi Jamaat event are being kept. This is the first time the armed service has been deployed at a civil centre set up to handle the coronavirus cases.

So far, the Army’s doctors and specialists have only been operating out of the quarantine centres set up by the force.

Defence sources said none of the quarantined people misbehaved with the Army medical team after reports emerged that some Tablighi Jamaat members refused to cooperate and even harassed civil medical teams.

“This deployment consists of two doctors and two nurses. They are accompanied by a protective unit as per standard operating procedure,” said an Army source.

Health ministry requests for Army team

Another source said that the deployment was made at the request of the health ministry after the Delhi government appealed for it since there was a lot of pressure on the civil medical teams.

The armed forces have already been directed to augment medical resources for civil health set-ups too.

Currently, there are six quarantine facilities being run by the Army — Mumbai, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Hindon, Manesar and Chennai — at which 1,737 people have been treated. Of these cases, 403 patients have been released.

The Army is also preparing dedicated Covid-19 facilities, including high-dependency units and intensive care unit beds, at 51 Army hospitals. Some of these facilities are located at Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Dundigal (near Hyderabad), Bengaluru, Kanpur, Jaisalmer, Jorhat and Gorakhpur.