Photo By Brad Rhen | Spc. Gary Sowash, a combat medic with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2/112th...... read more read more
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FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – After two years and hundreds of missions across the commonwealth, the Pennsylvania National Guard’s COVID-19 response mission has ended.
The Pa. National Guard’s COVID missions began on March 17, 2020, when Guard members were activated to provide subject matter expert planners to assist the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and to provide transportation for 38 Pennsylvania residents who had been quarantined following a COVID-19 outbreak on a cruise ship.
The missions ended – at least for the time being – on March 16, 2022, when the final service members supporting long-term care facilities came off orders.
“Over the past two years, Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers and Airmen have risen to the challenge and demonstrated unwavering dedication to their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Pennsylvania Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Mark Schindler. “I am truly proud of their dedicated service and sacrifice during this unprecedented time.
“As the Guard’s current role in COVID mission support comes to an end, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to our service members, their families and employers for everything they’ve done that enabled us to successfully complete many challenging missions,” Schindler added. “I am extremely proud to lead the Pennsylvania National Guard as we continue to serve and support our commonwealth and nation.”
In all, more than 1,400 Pa. National Guard members supported COVID missions across the commonwealth over the past two years. Some of them were on orders multiple times, and some of them were on orders for months at a time.
Among the highlights of the Pa. National Guard’s COVID response missions:
• A Military Medical Planning Team comprised of Army and Air National Guard medical planners and providers assessed over 197 sites across the commonwealth and planned over 242 operations.
• Pa. National Guard members provided staffing support to 161 long-term care facilities totaling over 16,683 shifts. These Soldiers and Airmen performed a variety of services, including medical care and general support, providing care to residents and relief to staff.
• Pa. National Guard teams provided training in personal protective equipment fitting and testing and advised on infection control practices to 3,760 long-term care facility personnel across the commonwealth.
• Several Guard members participated in voluntary COVID mapping operations in support of the Pennsylvania Department of Health. They contacted people who tested positive for COVID-19 and guided them through quarantine protocol, while collecting voluntarily-provided data. PA Guardsmen provided over 7,566 hours of work during 106 days of voluntary COVID mapping support.
• Pa. National Guard members conducted over 45 transportation missions, ferrying items such as food, personal protective equipment and cots for overflow hospitals.
• Mobile teams of Pa. National Guard members provided Point Prevalence Testing for over 32,499 residents and staff of long-term care facilities across the commonwealth.
• Pa. National Guard members assisted local government agencies with operating community-based testing sites in Luzerne, Montgomery and Allegheny counties that totaled over 22,000 tests.
• Pa. National Guard members supported over 20 COVID-19 vaccination sites and personally administered about 82,400 vaccines.
• The Pa. National Guard provided general staffing support to five Skilled Nursing Facility Regional Decompression Sites, totaling over 718 shifts. These Soldiers and Airmen performed a variety of services that enabled these facilities to quickly expand SNF capacity and support discharge of clinically appropriate patients from hospitals to post-acute facilities.
Planning and executing hundreds of missions from one end of Pennsylvania to the other was a tremendous undertaking, said Col. Frank Montgomery, the Pennsylvania National Guard’s director of military support.
“Everyone who took part in these missions, including the planners and those actually completing the missions, did an amazing job,” Montgomery said. “In many cases, they put their personal fears aside and stepped up to support their community when they were needed, whether it was something they had previously received training for or not.”
| Date Taken: | 03.23.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.23.2022 11:11 |
| Story ID: | 417005 |
| Location: | PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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