COVID 2019: Indian Army in 'standby' mode for help in 'friendly neighbourhood'

Fighting its own big bad battle with Covid 19, India is fulfilling the role of a regional powerhouse by keeping its Army in a ‘standby’ mode to fly in with its teams of military doctors, medical equipment and its well-trained nursing staff to deal with medical situations arising due to the virus outbreak in its ‘friendly neighbourhood’, reports senior journalist Sanjib Kr Baruah.

New Delhi:The Indian Army, arguably the world’s biggest with 13 lakh fighting men and women, may never have thought one of its biggest wars will be fought not with big booming guns and heavy artillery it has been trained to use. Nor the idea that it will be in adherence to the Biblical adage ‘Love Thy Neighbour’.

Fighting its own big bad battle with the novel coronavirus Covid 19, India is fulfilling the role of a regional powerhouse by keeping its Army in a ‘standby’ mode to fly in with its teams of military doctors, medical equipment and its well-trained nursing staff to deal with medical situations arising due to the viral scourge in its ‘friendly neighbourhood’.

“Such medical teams are on the standby to be deployed in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan… They will be sent when requested and approved by our government,” an Army official said.

It is understood that with the bilateral ceasefire agreement being violated with impunity on a regular basis across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan may not quite fit the bill of a ‘friendly neighbourhood’ country there.

One of the first efforts to offer medical aid to a foreign country was when an Indian Army team comprising five doctors, two nursing officers and seven paramedics were deployed for nine days from March 13-21 in an advisory role to assist the Maldives government to set up its domestic protection measures against Covid 19.

On April 11, a 15-member Army medical team was sent to Kuwait to set up a real-time Reverse Transcription–Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machine as well as to help build up capability development in the kingdom. RT-PCR uses nuclear technology to detect the presence of genetic material in virus or in any pathogen.

On the other hand, medicines and medical equipment are being provided to the Nepal government.

At the national level too, the Army is at the frontlines of the fight against coronavirus. It has set up ‘wellness centres’ to handle the expected surge in the number of Covid 19 positive cases.

One of the first centres to handle Indians flown in from abroad is the Manesar Army Wellness Facility in the national capital region. Till now, it has housed evacuees and lodged them in quarantine facilities after having flown in from China's Wuhan, the 124 Indians evacuated from the Diamond Princess Cruise from Japan besides Indian citizens flown from Italy and the United States.

Besides similar wellness centres at other places including Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, the Army has also set up three hospitals for civilians at Barrackpore, Shillong and Likabali just to treat dedicated Covid cases.

The Army’s efforts, as well as that of the Indian Air Force and the Navy, have supplemented the government’s effort to stand up a major force when it comes to the requirement of medical intervention in health emergencies.

ETV Bharat had earlier reported on how India has become a sought-after nation due to the country being the biggest producer of the much-in-demand hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an anti-malarial drug HCQ looked upon as a possible medicine to treat the Covid 19 infected.

At least 20 countries including Sri Lanka and Nepal have already requested India for the drug.

In a power statement, India had announced that it would supply HCQ in appropriate quantities “to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities” besides those nations “particularly badly affected by the pandemic.”