The U.S. military has long played a key role helping American communities respond to natural disasters and other public health emergencies. But the work it is doing during the coronavirus crisis is unique and may lead to a new blueprint for the way soldiers provide civilian assistance during a pandemic.
The U.S. Army has deployed hundreds of Reserve soldiers trained as health care professionals to New Jersey over the past month to support the state’s medical response to COVID-19, with doctors, nurses and other clinicians now serving in both field stations and at hard-hit community hospitals. Nearly 96,000 residents have now been diagnosed with the disease, including more than 5,000 who have died.
The response includes three 85-member Urban Augmentation Medical Task Force units, new groups assembled in recent weeks by the Army specifically to backstop and support local health care systems swamped by the coronavirus.