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BRASILIA – Until last Friday, April 24, 912 soldiers from the Armed Forces tested positive for covid-19. Four soldiers died of the disease and 185 were cured. The information was obtained by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo with the Ministry of Defense.
Right now, more than 29,000 men and women from the Army, Navy, and Air Force are working in different parts of the country participating in Operation Covid-19, launched on March 20. In nine days, the number of contaminated military personnel more than doubled, as well as the number of healed. As of April 15, 448 soldiers had tested positive, three of them had died and 90 had been healed.
One of the places where there was an increase in the number of contaminated was in Roraima, where the staff of the three forces is involved in Operation Welcome, a humanitarian action to help refugees from Venezuela. Although the Ministry of Defense does not report the distribution of people who contracted the disease by force or place, nor their situation, according to information obtained by the State, of the approximately 600 soldiers who work in the operation, more than 70 contracted the disease in Roraima, none in serious condition. General Antonio Manoel de Barros, who directs Operation Welcome, also tested positive, but has already recovered.
In addition to Army chemical and pharmaceutical laboratories that increase the production of gel alcohol and chloroquine, a substance that has shown some positive results in the fight against coronavirus, but which is controversial for its use by doctors, in the treatment of the disease: Military personnel also work in the disinfection of public spaces, donating blood, transporting health supplies, among other missions. They are also producing disposable cloth masks, caps, and aprons for the protection of their covid-19 troops. They also work in the collection and distribution of food for low-income families, who are prevented from working due to social isolation.
According to the Defense, “any suspicion of military exposure to the new coronavirus or any sign of the disease is evaluated immediately and, if the evaluation reveals that there was exposure to the virus, the army is placed in isolation.” The Defense note also reports that “the concern for the preservation of the health of the military ensures that the Armed Forces can continue to fulfill their mission and their commitment to the country, including in the fight against the new coronavirus.”
The Armed Forces have around 360,000 men and women on active duty. There are 215,000 in the Army, 80,000 in the Navy, 64,000 in the Air Force, distributed throughout the country.
Armed Forces Hospital
No Armed Forces Hospital (HFA), in Brasilia, where President Jair Bolsonaro generally conducts tests and has made at least two visits after the coronavirus pandemic erupted, until Friday, 20 patients recovered from the disease and there was no death from the covid- 19.
The Defense also reported that the HFA established a structure with two containers and a tent to examine patients with suspected coronavirus, “minimizing the possibility of contamination through different flows.” The examination has a thermal camera that measures the temperature of the patient at a distance, which allows the distribution of patients according to the case to be treated.
At the HFA, there are two specific floors for coronavirus treatment and, so far, the hospital has not registered any internal contamination, according to the Defense. When asked if the hospital was using chloroquine in its patients, the Ministry said that “the administration of the medications depends on the health status of each patient and on possible pre-existing comorbidities, following established official protocols.”
The hospital cares for military personnel and their dependents, as well as officials from the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry of Defense.
