US Military Preparing for Coronavirus ‘Pandemic’
U.S. Northern Command is preparing for the potential spread of the new coronavirus among U.S. personnel.
According to a Marine Corps message, commanders have to “review, update, and validate existing disease containment plans and policies in order to implement procedures for response, isolation, quarantine, restriction of movement, and community-based intervention.”
Officials also have to “become familiar” with the authority to “declare a public health emergency, restrict movement, quarantine, and isolate,” said the message. Military officials also need to coordinate with federal, state, local, and military facilities.
“The current threat of [COVID-19] has raised concern that this virus could result in a pandemic disease. In such a scenario, [the virus] could spread, infecting U.S. personnel, and threaten the operational readiness of the U.S. Marine Corps,” said another message.
A military official sought to temper concerns about the new message. It does not “indicate a greater likelihood of an event developing,” Navy Lt. Cmdr. Mike Hatfield told the Military Times, which first reported on the new directive.
“As military professionals, planning for a range of contingencies is something we owe the American people,” Hatfield said, adding that “we coordinate with other combatant commands to assess potential impacts in the event of a pandemic and we ensure the U.S. military is poised to respond as required.
“The military profession fosters a culture of planning, and the fact that we are coordinating planning efforts across the geographical combatant commands is consistent with how we prepare to respond, if directed,” he said.
The U.S. Navy also issued similar service-wide messages this week about COVID-19, the Military Times reported. Northern Command “is executing its pandemic plan and geographic combatant commanders are executing their supporting pandemic plans,” the Navy said.
Military commanders also have been told to confine a service member who has been to China since Feb. 2 to their residences. If they live in a barracks or share a bathroom, they have to be restricted to another lodging facility for isolation.
COVID-19, a flu-like virus that originated in Wuhan, China, is believed to have sickened tens of thousands in China. In the United States, 15 cases of the virus have been confirmed as of Thursday morning, with the latest being diagnosed on a military base in Texas.
A top doctor with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the agency responsible for confirming cases of the virus, warned this that officials are preparing for it to take “a foothold” in the U.S.
“At some point, we are likely to see community spread in the U.S. or in other countries,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the head of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters during a conference call. “This will trigger a change in our response strategy.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-military-preparing-for-coronavirus-pandemic_3237221.html
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