After Maldives, India set to send team to Nepal to help check coronavirus pandemic

India is set to dispatch a rapid response team to Nepal in the next few days to help the country in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic as part of efforts to extend assistance to "friendly neighbours", officials said on Friday.

The team will comprise healthcare experts and doctors from the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) which has set up multiple quarantine facilities in India besides taking care of hundreds of people evacuated from corona-virus hit countries.

Director General of AFMS Lt Gen Anup Banerji said the institution is ready to dispatch a rapid response team to Nepal for assisting the country to deal with the pandemic, adding similar assistance to other nations will be provided as and when required.

A 14-member medical team from Army Medical Corps was sent to the Maldives to assist the country in setting up its own coronavirus testing laboratory, treatment protocol and quarantine capacities. The team returned on March 23 after staying in the Maldives for 10 days.

About steps being taken to deal with the pandemic in India, Banerji told reporters that the AFMS has suggested setting up of medical facilities within train coaches in case if necessary.

He said 28 service hospitals have been identified to deal with coronavirus cases. The hospitals will offer treatment to armed forces personnel as well as civilian patients.

At present, five hospitals of the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force are capable of carrying out COVID-19 test.

These include Army Hospital Research and Referral in Delhi, Command hospital of the Indian Air Force in Bengaluru, Armed Forces Medical College in Pune, Command hospital in Lucknow and Command hospital in Udhampur.

Six more hospitals are being equipped shortly with the resources to begin testing, Banerjee said.

As of now, only one serving soldier has been tested positive for COVID-19, he said, adding he was on leave at his home in Leh, taking care of his father who had returned recently from Iran and was suffering from the virus infection.

"The soldier has recovered," the official said.

On checking spread of the infection in armed forces, he said a series of advisories have been issued by AFMS on social distancing, cancellation of courses and training, use of masks, preventive measures to be taken at workplace.

On the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the the AFMS director general said it is a "challenge at national as well as global level", adding an advisory for rational usage of PPE has been issued to the services.

"The AFMS is presently geared up for adequate supply of PPEs for use in our hospitals. Additional procurement is also being planned to tide over crisis foreseen during the coming weeks and months since the Armed Forces have been directed to augment medical resources for the civil health set up also," he added.

Six quarantine facilities run by the Armed Forces are currently operational at Manesar, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Chennai, Hindan and Mumbai.

So far, a total of 1,463 people, including foreigners, evacuated from COVID-19 affected countries were housed at these centres.

Of them, 1,073 persons are presently under quarantine and being provided proper care, according to another official.

These include evacuees from Iran, Italy, Japan and Malaysia, besides the IAF and medical crew.