New York National Guard Operational Upstate for April 9, 2020

LATHAM, NY (04/09/2020) (readMedia)-- On Thursday, April 9, the New York National Guard has 3,400 personnel on mission across the state.

This includes approximately 2,820 New York Army National Guard Soldiers and 430 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 coordinating the additional military medical staff who will work at Javits and in New York City hospitals. U.S. Army Soldiers of the 531st and 9th Hospital Centers, both part of the 44th Medical Brigade, are providing staffing at the Javits New York Medical Site.

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.

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

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

The New York National Guard is also supporting the alternate care facility at the South Beach Psychiatric Center on Staten Island.

The New York National Guard continues support at nine drive-thru testing sites, supporting more than 6,500 tests yesterday.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, Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens and the SUNY Albany campus. Soldiers and Airmen are collecting samples and providing general-purpose support at the testing locations.

A tenth site is being established today in Brooklyn adjacent to a retail store parking lot in Flatbush.

National Guard personnel continue food packaging and distribution today in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Manhattan in New York City. More than 500,000 meals have been distributed.

Similar missions continue in Westchester County in New Rochelle where 21,469 meal packages have been distributed and Albany County where 636 meals have been delivered to quarantined residents

.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. Yesterday 100 ventilators were delivered to the state stockpile for future distribution and another 100, part of the federal stockpile brought to New York from California, was transported and delivered to the New Jersey State Police.

These missions continue to deliver ventilators from state Department of Health stockpiles to hospitals in need.

Hand sanitizer warehousing and deliveries continue today to 13 locations across the lower Hudson Valley. More than 30,000 gallons of hand sanitizer have been delivered 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.The National Guard Soldiers and Airmen are joined by 49 Soldiers assigned to the active Army's 54th Quartermaster Company, now providing staff assistance to the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

New York National Guard members continue to provide support to the New York State Coronavirus Hotline by working call centers in Rotterdam 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 have assembled about 41,100 kits 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.