Prepare for multiple waves of COVID-19 over 12 months: military chief to troops
The Canadian military is preparing to respond to multiple waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, which could stretch out over a year or more, the country’s top military commander said in his latest planning directive.
Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of the defence staff, warned in a memo on Thursday that requests for assistance can be expected «from all echelons of government and the private sector and they will likely come to the Department [of National Defence] through multiple points of entry.»
The directive notes the federal government has not yet directed the military to move into response mode, but if — or when — it does, a single government panel, likely a deputy-minister level inter-departmental task force, will «triage requests and co-ordinate federal responses.»
It also warns that members of the military will contract coronavirus, «potentially threatening the integrity» of some units.
There are, at the moment, only three confirmed cases of COVID-19 among military members, according to Vance.
The notion that the virus could recede and then return is a feature of federal government planning.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has put out a notice looking for people to staff its Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response during the crisis and the secondment is expected to last between 12 and 24 months.
In an interview with CBC News, Vance said the directive is planning for the «worst-case scenario» and at the moment they are only assumptions.
They are scenarios the military must plan for, he said.
In Italy, the military has been employed in a variety of ways, including the bolstering of the manufacturing capacity of medical equipment manufacturers and the transport of bodies of those who’ve succumbed to COVID-19.
