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Hundreds of additional military personnel are being deployed across the UK to tackle COVID-19, in the largest national operation the UK has seen in peacetime.
The number of armed forces working in the fight against the pandemic, codenamed Operation Rescript, will increase to more than 5,000, more than at any other time during the pandemic.
Nearly 1,500 are being shipped to support test sites across the country, including an additional 800 in Greater Manchester, 390 in Kent and 130 in Swadlincote, Derbyshire.
“The new year will see new levels of support from the military to overcome this pandemic,” said Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.
“Manchester is the last of those tasks and it will make an important contribution to protecting the groups most at risk as the city seeks to recover.
“As a member of the Northwest Parliament, I am well aware of the considerable length of time that many of us have been working under some form of blockade and I hope that our soldiers will help us get to the day when these restrictions will begin to lift.”
In addition to community testing, the military is still testing carriers in Dover and will help establish 10 new test sites to improve traffic flow through the Canal.
Some 1,500 employees have been provided to support testing in schools, including virtual support and telephone counseling.
Soldiers at a ‘pop-up’ testing facility in Macclesfield in April
Staff are also on standby to deploy on short notice to provide in-person support.
Testing will continue as planned with two rapid lateral flow tests available to all high school and college students and staff at the beginning of the trimester to identify asymptomatic cases, break the chains of transmission and defeat the virus.
And training begins today for a vaccine rapid reaction force launching on January 11. Initially, there will be 21 teams of six military personnel assigned to the seven NHS regions of England; it is hoped that they can provide additional support for the vaccine launch if local health authorities need it.
