New York National Guard Operational Update for April 6, 2020

LATHAM, NY (04/06/2020) (readMedia)-- On Monday, April 6, the New York National Guard has 2,875 personnel on mission across the state. This includes 2,378 New York Army National Guard Soldiers and 356 Air National Guard 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. 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 coordinating the expansion of the Jacob Javits Center FEMA field hospital to care for COVID 19 patients. The center expanded capacity to now accommodate some 2,500 beds and staff of the 531st and 9th Hospital Centers, both part of the 44th Medical Brigade, are providing care for patients at the site, providing relief for New York City hospitals. A current expansion plan is expected to provide for a new total of 4,200 patient beds.

An additional 325 medical personnel from the Department of Defense arrived Sunday for staffing the Javits expansion and augmenting local New York City hospital staffs.

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 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, now exceeding 5,000 tests per day in total.

Two additional sites with National Guard assistance begin operations today. One will be at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. The second site will be at SUNY at Albany campus.

National Guard personnel continue food packaging and distribution today in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan in New York City. Similar missions continue in Westchester County in New Rochelle and Albany County.

National Guard members have helped in the distribution of 337,358 meals in New York City alone, with thousands more in Westchester and Albany counties.

New York Soldiers and Airmen are also conducting logistics missions, including warehousing and commodity distribution of medical supplies at sites in the Hudson Valley, the Albany area, and Mohawk Valley. These missions have included delivery of ventilators from New York State Department of Health stockpiles to hospitals in need.

Hand sanitizer warehousing and deliveries continue today across the lower Hudson Valley. Nearly 30,000 gallons of hand sanitizer has been delivered by National Guard personnel to local governments.

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.

The National Guard Soldiers are joined by 42 Soldiers assigned to the Army's 54th Quartermaster Company, now providing staff assistance to the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The unit is one of two active Mortuary Affairs units in the U.S. military and deploys as part of the Dual Status Command force. The company is based at Fort Lee, Va.

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 speaking with more than 5,000 callers on average a day.

Soldiers continue packaging COVID-19 test kits for the New York State Department of Health at the Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany. They assembled 23,000 kits this past weekend for distribution across the state.

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.