The Pentagon will make immediately available up to 5 million masks and will release 2,000 deployable ventilators to the Department of Health and Human Services to combat COVID-19, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said.
“The Department of Defense will make available up to 5 million N95 respirator masks and other personal protective equipment from our own strategic reserves to the Department of Health and Human Services for distribution,” Esper said Tuesday at a Pentagon briefing.
Esper said 1 million N95 masks will be made immediately available.
HHS will decide where to prioritize the equipment, he added. The DOD ventilators will require specialized training for civilian use.
Esper also said the department’s 14 COVID-19 testing laboratories will be made available for civilian use and that the DOD is bringing online two additional labs.
A Pentagon official confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the labs have a testing capacity of 3,800 per day.
Esper also visited Fort Detrick to evaluate the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases’s work on a COVID-19 vaccine, confirming a timeline of 12 to 18 months for development.
“If somebody does develop a vaccine, we can run it through our system very quickly, as well, and support those efforts,” he said.
Esper also said the Army Corps of Engineers will be made available to states when requested to assist with logistics or construction, but they may not be the fastest solution.
“At this point, the key is speed,” Esper said, responding to questions stemming from the COVID-19 task force press conference. The secretary explained that the Corps has an extensive contracting protocol that may not match some needs.
The defense secretary also said he spoke to at least two governors to hear their requirements and offer assistance, including how best to use the National Guard.
Esper said the Guard has been activated in 15 states, involving more than 1,500 personnel.
Echoing comments from Joint Staff Surgeon Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs in a briefing Monday, Esper said Guard and Reserve medical personnel, if called, would be taken away from civilian functions. Likewise, military medical personnel are currently supporting defense installations.
Esper also addressed how field hospitals might be used to lessen the burden on civilian hospitals.
“The best use of our field hospitals, because they’re geared toward it, is trauma,” he said. “You would locate it somewhere, maybe next to a hospital. As trauma patients come in, maybe, instead of going into the hospital, they would go into the field hospital.”
This would free up rooms for COVID-19 patients to use the segregated hospital rooms for preventing the spread of infectious diseases, while the open bays of field tents and the military’s trauma-specialized doctors could assist trauma patients.
