The Department of Defense can’t meet all of the domestic needs created by the coronavirus, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, acknowledging the pandemic may also take a toll on force readiness.
“We clearly can’t meet everybody’s needs with what we have in our inventory,” Esper said Monday, after noting he spoke to as many as 10 governors in recent days.
Esper also said the largest Army field hospitals have a capacity of 248 beds, not the “thousands” needed to meet hospital surge demands in the hardest-hit areas. Instead, he said, the focus has been turned toward Army Corps of Engineers planning across several states, where they will contract out work to convert existing buildings to hospitals.
“What we’re talking about is the need for thousands of beds. We could provide with the field hospital 248, and we only have so many field hospitals,” Esper said. “It would take a few weeks to do all that.”
Instead, the Defense secretary explained that he “thinks” the field hospitals would be used as temporary solutions while permanent structures are outfitted by Army contractors. Those temporary hospitals would then be repositioned to new locations in need when the Army facilities are ready.
To protect his own forces, Esper said currently, the Department of Defense has 16 labs globally with a capacity to process more than 6,000 tests per day, but he revealed, “The issue is test kits.”
“As more of those come on board, we can test more,” he added.
The Defense Department confirmed Monday that COVID-19 virus cases doubled over the weekend to 133 military personnel, and exercises across the world have been canceled.
“If this pandemic continues at the scale and scope of what some are predicting, over time, you could start seeing an impact on readiness,” Esper said. “As this virus ramps up and spreads, we’ll obviously see more and more impact [on] persons in our ranks.”
Asked about U.S. citizens stranded abroad, Esper could not say if the Defense Department will play the role it did in Honduras over the weekend bringing home Americans in countries with closed borders. He deferred to the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. Likewise, Esper deferred to the Federal Emergency Management Agency when asked about the status of 5 million N-95 masks and 2,000 ventilators that he said would come from the military’s reserve to support domestic shortfalls.
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Esper said military personnel are not being tested for coronavirus unless they show symptoms, and that he has not been tested but that his temperature is checked regularly and he is asymptomatic.
Asked why military units across the globe are still holding all-hands meetings and working in close quarters despite claims that the Defense Department is following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for social distancing, Esper said each situation is unique, and it is up to commanders to decide how best to implement prevention guidelines.
“Tell me how I do six-feet distancing in an attack submarine, or how do I do that in a bomber with two pilots sitting side-by-side?” Esper said. “There will be inconsistencies because every situation is unique.”
The defense secretary also declined to reveal his assessment of the Feb. 29 peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, which suffered another blow yesterday when a Taliban attack on an Afghan security checkpoint killed 24 members of Afghan security forces before the Taliban burned the facility to the ground.
Esper also confirmed that the Pentagon compound had been elevated to HPCON Charlie, the third-highest health protection level. Access points are reduced, and temperature checks and screenings are taking place for all personnel entering the building.
