Military deployments in response to the coronavirus pandemic expanded over the weekend to include all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories, according to the National Guard.
As of Monday afternoon, the Guard said 8,000 personnel with the Air National Guard and the Army National Guard are deployed nationwide. That figure was up from 400 deployments on March 13 as a result of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases jumping from 2,000 at the time to more than 41,000 by Monday afternoon.
“With COVID-19, it’s like we have 54 different hurricanes hitting every state, every territory, and the District of Columbia. Some are Category 5, some are Category 3, and some are Category 1,” National Guard chief, Gen. Joseph Lengyel, said in a statement.
The several thousand deployed are just under 2% of the Guard’s 450,000 members. Governors must activate the National Guard, then determine where the state or territory needs help. The Guard’s members outside the continental United States in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam were called in since last week.
Guard personnel tasks include delivering food, working at call centers, conducting oral coronavirus tests, and cleaning public places.
Half of all coronavirus cases nationwide are in New York, where 1,800 guardsmen are deployed. They staff six drive-through test sites, which saw a total 3,000 people get tested on Sunday, according to Col. Richard Goldenberg.
In Florida, more than 1,000 personnel assist at testing sites in Broward, Orange, and Miami-Dade counties. Another testing site at Marlins Stadium in downtown Miami is expected to open soon, according to 1st Lt. Tahisha Coleman, spokeswoman for the state Guard’s operations.
