Military Response To Coronavirus Around The World

As with any other emergency, whether it’s flood or pandemic, the usual response is to call the military, as the most reliable and efficient organisation in the time of crisis.

An epidemic requires a rapid response at scale.

Military units will often be deployed to secure quarantine zones and help with everything from food services to medical support.

The US troops are well versed in dealing with life-threatening epidemics. During the Ebola crisis in 2014, the US military deployed more than 4,000 personnel to Africa to deal with the outbreak. Led by 101st Airborne headquarters, they built 17 hospitals, delivered aid to the local authorities and helped the medical organisations with logistics and transportation.

How have militaries around the world responded to the global spread of Coronavirus?

Let’s start with China where the virus originated.

China 

The initial response from the Chinese military has been criticised as being surprisingly slow - especially considering that the province of Wuhan from where the virus spread is home to the country’s major military units.

The first medical units from the People’s Liberation Army (as the Armed Forces are known in China) began to arrive in Wuhan a month after the initial outbreak of the virus.

On January 24th, they arrived in meagre numbers. Three medical teams comprising 450 personnel were reported to have been sent from Xi’an, Chongqing and Shanghai.

The lack of major deployment was severely felt due to the urgent need for supplies and construction of hospitals.

Since then China has stepped up to the enormous challenge. The PLA are leading frontline efforts against the virus.

Currently, 10,000 medical personnel are providing support in the hard-hit province of Hubei and Wuhan.

The army has set up two makeshift hospitals in Wuhan. The fight against COVID-19 is already stretching the military capabilities to capacity and will prove to be the ultimate test for PLA’s joint operations.

USA 

The military has contingency plans in place for dealing with epidemics.

As of March 4, 2020, there were 125 confirmed and presumptive cases of coronavirus in the US, including nine deaths.

If the outbreak keeps spreading at the speed that it has since the first recorded case in Wuhan in December, the military will have to erect field hospitals and potentially transport patients in isolation pods on cargo planes. 

In order to take care of the ailing population, it is of paramount importance that military personnel are healthy themselves.

More than 75,000 troops are deployed in countries suffering from outbreaks including South Korea and Italy which currently puts them at higher risk than the civilian population back home. 

After a soldier tested positive for Coronavirus in South Korea. The military has taken precautions to protect themselves by quarantining anyone that has been in contact with him and deploying “clean teams” to disinfect anywhere where he has been. 

Annual joint military exercises with the South Korean military have been cancelled as a precautionary measure.

Navy ships have been ordered to stay at sea for at least 14 days due to their proximity to infected ports. 

UK

The United Kingdom has a four-strand plan in place to "contain, delay, research, mitigate" the virus. 

Currently, the immediate plans for the military, depending on the nature of the outbreak, are to support the police. 

The UK Prime Minister said the British Army is "ready to backfill" for the police "as and when" required, as part of "long-established plans" for worst-case scenarios.

Professor Michael Clarke, former director of think tank the Royal United Services Institute, told Forces News:

"Backing up the police is probably the most obvious thing that the military will do, because if we start to have to rearrange public events, or create public events that will go ahead but with very strict hygiene procedures, then the police will be in the forefront of doing that.

"It may well be that the military will therefore take other, as it were, minor police roles to allow front line police to do that.”

For now, however, according to the prime minister, the MOD "will be going about their business in the normal way."

Iran

The middle eastern country has been badly hit by the outbreak. Iran's health ministry said coronavirus has killed 92 people. The government has also been affected, with 23 members of Parliament testing positive. 

Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on the armed forces to join the health officials in the fight against Coronavirus in the Islamic Republic. Iran will mobilise 300,000 soldiers and volunteers. 

President Hassan Rouhani has rejected Trump's offer of US help to contain the epidemic, blaming “vicious” American sanctions of depriving the country of medicine. 

In February, President Putin expressed his condolences regarding Iranian loses to coronavirus and offered help to contain the disease. 

On Tuesday, Iranian ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali confirmed that Iran has turned to Russia with a request for humanitarian assistance. 

France

The Army Health Service is part of the national system in place to treat and contain coronavirus. Four out of eight Armed Forces hospitals have been mobilised.

France has a specialised Army unit dedicated to combating nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical threats. Based in Maine-et-Loire, the 2nd Dragons Regiment is currently on standby, ready to spring into action if required.

The unit is well placed to deal with the outbreak of an epidemic, having been deployed to Guinée in 2015 to deal with the Ebola crisis. 

On January 31, the military repatriated 193 French people from Wuhan back to France.

They were transported by the Estérel squadron on a military aircraft and were quarantined for 14 days in a hotel in Southern France.

All the passengers and military personnel that carried out the operation were declared virus-free after testing negative for COVID-19 following the quarantine period.

Italy 

As the worst country in Europe to be affected, the death toll jumped to 107 on Wednesday. Italy has shut down schools until mid-March and cracked down on public gatherings. 

Military personnel are most at risk of getting infected, as they are the first point of contact at checkpoints in restricted zones in the north of Italy and field hospitals.

Last month, a soldier tested positive for Coronavirus. The 39-year-old officer was serving in Milan at the time.

Health checks have been carried out for all the staff of the base and the premises disinfected.

The soldiers involved in the repatriation of Italian citizens from China and Japan have also been put under surveillance.

As the European epicentre of the virus, 10 towns in the economically prosperous Lombardy region in the North of Italy are on lockdown.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) advises against all but essential travel to those small towns.

Coronavirus is most likely to result in lethal outcomes for the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. Italy has the oldest population in Europe which raises the risk of fatality.

The number of people infected has escalated to 3,089 as of March 4. 

Currently, there are 96,267 cases of Coronavirus reported globally, with China still being the worst affected with 80,000 reported cases.

However, the good news is that, according to official Chinese sources, the outbreak is slowing down in China.