Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Eduardo T Otero | 200629-N-KH151-0024 NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain (June 29, 2020) A sign at Naval Station...... read more read more
Naval Station Rota and its community are no strangers to challenges, so when the Kingdom of Spain implemented a State of Alarm in mid-March due to COVID-19, Team Rota rose to the occasion.
After four months in a State of Alarm, Spain is finally returning to a “new normal.” But how exactly did the programs on base handle the evolving situation up to this point? And how will they tackle things moving forward?
All the moving pieces that make up the NAVSTA Rota community had to play their part in handling the situation as it arose. Regularly-frequented hubs on base, such as the fitness center and worship spaces, transitioned to online services during the State of Alarm.
Working from home, the fitness program’s staff focused on social media to provide video workouts as well as written workouts of the day that required either no equipment or only items commonly found in homes. The religious programs team similarly utilized technology to reach their audience.
“We adapted,” said Religious Program Specialist 1st Class Harvy Natac, NAVSTA Rota Chapel leading petty officer. “We came together as a team; chaplains and RPs talked about what we could do and couldn’t do due to the restrictions and came up with ways on how we could still provide religious ministry to all. I can say that we were successful in doing so.”
As the pandemic’s risk has begun to decrease, each staff has taken a unique, phased approach to reopening.
“The process has been twofold,” said Sara Fine, food and beverage director for NAVSTA Rota’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) program. “Identifying what services are necessary to maintain the morale of our community and identifying mitigations that can be made within the facility to offer that service, while still complying with the Spanish State of Alarm and ensuring the well-being of our patrons.”
According to Fine, Pizza Villa is a great example. The need for an additional food outlet was identified, so a system was implemented through which guests could call ahead, pay via credit card and collect their pizza at the delivery point in front of the Navy Exchange (NEX).
“As restrictions slowly started lifting, we started to bring back some services,” said Vinson, fitness director at NAVSTA Rota. “This included the use of the turf and track once outdoor physical training was permitted by the host nation and the installation.”
According to Vinson, they continued this by allowing equipment to be checked out on a limited basis for use at the track until the interior of the fitness facilities were available for U.S. service members, dependents, retirees, and DoD civilians.
Creative solutions were brainstormed for each service.
“The biggest challenge that I saw was when we received authorization to use the drive-in theater for worship services,” said Natac. “Challenges like audio equipment, implementing physical distancing, et cetera.”
Natac said that with the commanding officer’s and MWR’s support, along with teamwork within the department, they were able to provide their services to the community as planned.
In typical Navy fashion, no program on base functions in a vacuum. Medical and health experts played a key role in overseeing many of the steps taken.
“Public Health experts, with the facility managers, performed thorough pre-opening walkthroughs to identify preventive measures to protect health and prevent exposure to disease such as increased sanitation, physical distancing, and improved hand hygiene opportunities for staff and patrons,” said Cmdr. Stacy L. Kwak, Naval Hospital Rota’s director for Public Health services, assistant Public Health Emergency Officer and Preventive Medicine department head. “Additionally, preventive medicine technicians from both the hospital and Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit (NEPMU) 7 ensure that these measures are strictly adhered to through daily inspections of all base facilities while open to the public.”
With such thorough and highly organized efforts between different programs, challenges that may have seemed unsurmountable were able to be assessed and tackled head-on, especially as restrictions gradually decreased.
According to Kwak, one of these challenges was aligning the Spanish State of Alarm with guidance and instructions from the Department of Defense (DoD), Defense Health Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Commander, Naval Installations Command (CNIC) and Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central (EURAFCENT).
She also highlighted that enforcement of Navy Medicine’s basic principles of sanitation and community health and recommendations from the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, the U.S. and European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was among the main factors considered as decisions were made throughout the process.
“This is a new worldwide situation,” said Vinson. “There isn’t a ‘playbook’ or a standard operating procedure for how to handle a worldwide pandemic when it comes to our services provided.”
That causes challenges in itself, according to Vinson, as no one really had anything to look back on and use for guidance. He said multiple instructions that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic from both CNIC and the host nation had to be sorted through when it came to reopening services or adapting current resources to fit emerging needs.
“COVID-19 impacts on other services also had a trickle-down effect on our fitness program,” said Vinson. “For example, with hotels out in town closing, transient troops coming to and from theatre did not have the required accommodations. We therefore had to use the fitness center to help with accommodating the long layovers sometimes needed.”
The adaptation process encompassed all programs.
“The biggest challenge in any situation like this is continuing the support to our military community,” said Fine. “This is a challenge we have seen globally; how do we support our community while still maintaining COVID-19 safety? Our MWR team worked quickly to find creative ways to overcome these challenges in many ways from utilizing social media to offer cooking, fitness and activity tutorials, to passing out Easter baskets for families to host their own Easter egg hunts, and creating a delivery point for Pizza Villa that enabled the facility to reopen while still following the State of Alarm guidelines.”
Fine and her team works closely with the Preventive Medicine team, who not only lays the groundwork in how they restore services safely but also conducts frequent checks on the facilities to ensure guidelines are updated and maintained.
"From the preventive medicine point of view, “the mission of the hospital is to ensure force preservation and community health protection,” said Kwak. “Protecting public health and preventing the spread of disease is and always has been our number one priority.”
And this priority applies to all programs as well. Looking at every minor detail to hash out any potential mitigation strategies is vital.
“Moving forward, we will continue to be mindful of the ‘new normal’ and implement it the best that we can while being on the lookout for new guidance that may come out in the future,” said Natac. “Safety was and will continue to be our main priority. Our services will continue on and we’ll provide them to the best of our abilities even with the ‘new normal’.”
It is said that challenges can be the source of opportunity, and although difficult, these times have certainly served as an opportunity to learn and become better prepared for future incidents.
“Should there be another wave of COVID-19, the installation and our host nation in general will be much more equipped and ready to immediately contain and isolate any other outbreak,” said Vinson. “We will continue to expand our SOP throughout the year to factor in how to improve our response from the first wave, to any possible second wave.”
The patience and support shown by everyone within Team Rota is much appreciated.
“Above all else, I would like to thank our community for their patience and understanding throughout this evolution as we began and are now maintaining precautions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Fine. “When we first opened Pizza Villa back up, the community really rallied around us in such a positive way. Even during the hectic initial reopening, everyone was so gracious and thankful towards my team. We are proud to serve this community!”
We should all be proud, because though COVID-19 may have forced the world to alter standard approaches, NAVSTA Rota and its community has been able to hold its ground and to stand the watch another day.
| Date Taken: | 07.02.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.02.2020 06:51 |
| Story ID: | 373300 |
| Location: | ROTA, ES |
| Web Views: | 390 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, NAVSTA Rota: Through the State of Alarm and the “New Normal”, by PO1 Eduardo T Otero, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
