From Tuesday morning to Wednesday morning, 30 additional members of the Department of Defense community tested positive bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases within the force to 89. This includes:
- 49 active-duty personnel
- 14 civilian personnel
- 19 dependents
- 7 contractors.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced at a White House press briefing on Wednesday the Department of Defense would be "leaning forward" in its response.
"I do want to assure the American people that the United States military remains ready and capable of defending the country and our interests abroad," Esper said. "With that, the department is leaning forward in our response to COVID-19."
The United States government and President Donald Trump have begun to lean heavier on Department of Defense resources, calling for field hospitals, National Guard activations, equipment, and deployment of the Navy's two hospital ships.
On Tuesday, Esper said the Pentagon will provide 5 million respirator masks and 2,000 specialized ventilators to federal health authorities to help in the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
And during a press conference on Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the USNS Comfort, one of the U.S. Navy hospital ships, is headed to New York City Harbor to help with the growing healthcare crisis due to the coronavirus.
Navy to send hospital ship, USNS Comfort, to New York City
But, while Cuomo said the ship would be headed to NYC immediately, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Jonathan R. Hoffman said it would probably be a couple of weeks.
"Timing-wise that's a little more difficult. The Comfort is currently in for maintenance," Hoffman said. "They're going to expedite the maintenance. That's not a days issue, that's a weeks issue. So it's going to be a little while."
Not including the hospital ships, the Department of Defense has approximately 1,000 hospital beds ready to augment those available in the United States health system according to Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs, joint staff surgeon, Joint Chiefs of Staff.
That being said, Pentagon officials have cautioned throughout the week regarding the limitations of the military's medical capabilities.
'We stand ready': Wilkie says VA is working to get more coronavirus tests, open more beds
"What we're trying to be very careful of is not overpromising...Our fixed facilities are designed to the force that we have," Friedrichs said at a press briefing Tuesday.
Globally, more than 214,000 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed. There have been a total of 8,727 deaths. At this time, 55 of these deaths were United States citizens.
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