New York National Guard Operational Update for April 20, 2020

LATHAM, NY (04/20/2020) (readMedia)-- On Monday, April 20, the New York National Guard has 3,617 personnel on mission across the state.

This includes approximately 2,998 New York Army National Guard Soldiers and 460 Air National Guard Airmen along with members of the New York Guard (State Defense Force), and New York Naval Militia.

Six Joint Task Forces are operating on Long Island, New York City, the Hudson Valley, Capital Region, Syracuse and Buffalo to support state and local governments. A Dual Status Command Task Force under the command of Brig. Gen. Michel Natali, the Assistant Adjutant General, Army, leads efforts to employ active and National Guard military resources in New York City.

The Dual Status Command is supporting 2,700 military and civilian medical staff working at Javits and in New York City hospitals. U.S. Army Soldiers of the 44th Medical Brigade are providing staffing at the Javits New York Medical Station. They are joined by additional medical staff from the U.S. Army Reserve, the Navy Reserve, the Air Force and the Civilian Medical Reserve Corps.

More than 1,005 patients have received care at the Javits NY Medical Station.

New York National Guard members continue to manage the Javits site as the unified command post for the multi-agency response.

New York Air National Guard Pararescue Airmen, who are trained as emergency medical technicians, from New York's 106th Rescue Wing, are also assisting in city hospitals.

The New York National Guard is supporting the alternate care facility at the South Beach Psychiatric Center on Staten Island. Additional forces are providing support at three other potential alternate care sites on Long Island or Westchester.

The New York National Guard continues to support 10 drive-thru testing sites. Over, 5,000 test appointments were conducted on April 15.

Sites are located at:

• SUNY Stony Brook;

• Jones Beach State Park;

• Staten Island adjacent the Staten Island University Hospital;

• Glen Island State Park in Westchester County;

• The Anthony Wayne Service area in Rockland County;

• Lehman College and the Bay Plaza Mall in the Bronx;

• Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, Brooklyn;

And at SUNY Albany in Albany.

Soldiers and Airmen are collecting samples and providing general-purpose support at the testing locations.

National Guard personnel continue food packaging and distribution today in the Bronx, Yonkers, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Manhattan in New York City, providing 111,124 meals April 18. Soldiers have distributed 1,510,071 meals.

Similar missions resume today in Westchester County, where Guardsmen provided 68,890 meal packages and Albany County where 1,406 meals have been delivered to quarantined residents as of Friday, April 17.

A new food distribution begins today, Monday, April 20 in Schenectady County with scheduled missions to begin later this week in Albany, Montgomery, and Chenango Counties.

New York Soldiers and Airmen are also conducting logistics missions, including warehousing and commodity distribution of medical supplies at six sites in the Hudson Valley, the Albany area, and Mohawk Valley.

More than 100 pallets of medical supplies, including PPE, were delivered to seven sites on Saturday, April 18, including seven pallets to the Staten Island alternate care site.

Hand sanitizer delivery continues to three locations today, having provided 907 gallons on April 18 to six locations in the lower Hudson Valley and a total of 36,339 gallons to local governments.

The National Guard continues to provide logistics support to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City.

National Guard personnel are working with members of the Medical Examiner's Office to assist in the dignified removal of human remains when required. Soldiers assigned to the active Army's 54th Quartermaster Company are also providing staff assistance to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on New York City.

The support mission also includes assistance to the Westchester County Medical Examiner.

New York National Guard members concluded a mission to support the New York State Coronavirus Hotline by working at a call center in Rotterdam to offer updated information to the public. Soldiers spoke with an average of 3,300 callers each day and have provided response and support to more than 185,880 callers since the mission began March 11.

Soldiers will continue to man phones at two New York City call centers.

Soldiers continue packaging COVID-19 test kits for the New York State Department of Health at the Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany. They assembled more than 21,000 kits April 18 for distribution across the state, providing more than 212,000 since starting the mission.

New York National Guard images continue to go up on DVIDS: https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/NYNG, and our NY National Guard Flickr site, https://www.flickr.com/photos/nyng.

The New York National Guard Public Affairs Officer is Col. Richard Goldenberg. He can be reached at Richard.l.goldenberg.mil@mail.mil or (518), 786-4571.