New York National Guard Operational Update for April 4, 2020

LATHAM, NY (04/04/2020) (readMedia)-- On Saturday, April 4, the New York National Guard has 2,860 personnel on mission across the state. This includes New York Army National Guard Soldiers and Airmen along with members of the New York Guard (State Defense Force), and the 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.

An additional 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 coordinating the expansion of the Jacob Javits Center FEMA field hospital to care for COVID 19 patients. This follows the recommendation April 2 by Governor Cuomo and approval by President Trump to modify the care plan at Javits as the number of COVID 19 patients increase throughout New York City.

U.S. Army medical personnel from the 9th and 531st Hospital Centers, part of the 44th Medical Brigade, staff the center for patient treatment.

New York National Guard members continue to manage the site as the unified command post for the multi-agency response at the Javits Center and are supporting logistical operations at the site. The build out of Javits to add 1,000 additional beds is anticipated.

The New York National Guard continues support at seven drive-thru testing sites. Sites are located at SUNY Stony Brook, Jones Beach State Park, Staten Island, and 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. Soldiers and Airmen are collecting sample and providing general-purpose support at the testing locations.

More than 27,000 people have received testing at these sites since testing began.

Two additional sites are being added and the New York National Guard will assist in staffing those sites. One site will be at Aqueduct Racetrack in the Bronx. The second new testing site will be established at the State University of New York at Albany campus. This is the first state operated COVID 19 testing site in upstate New York.

National Guard personnel are continuing food packaging and distribution today in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan in New York City. Similar missions are expected to be conducted on Monday in Westchester County in New Rochelle and Albany County.

National Guard members have helped in the distribution of some 148,626 meals to New Yorkers.

New York Soldiers and Airmen are also conducting logistics missions in support of the state response, including warehousing and commodity distribution of medical supplies at sites in the Hudson Valley, the Albany area, and Mohawk Valley. Hand sanitizer warehousing and deliveries continue today across the lower Hudson Valley.

The New York 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.

New York National Guard also continues to provide support to the New York State Coronavirus Hotline by working call centers in Rotterdam, Schenectady and Brooklyn to offer updated information to the public.

Soldiers are packaging COVID-19 test kits for the New York State Department of Health at the Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany. They have assembled 22,250 kits so far.

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) 786-6150.