Air Force update for COVID-19
By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs / Published April 03, 2020
WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- In an effort to minimize the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 and to prioritize the health and safety of Department of the Air Force personnel, the following modifications have been made:
April 3, 2020
This morning, Lt. Gen. Jon T. Thomas, Deputy Commander for Air Mobility Command announced during a press conference that the seventh mission of Total Force Airmen flying C-17 Globemaster IIIs transporting testing swabs from Aviano Air Base, Italy, to Memphis Air National Guard Base, Tennessee, was executed last night. These testing swabs were then turned over to FedEx for dissemination to medical facilities across the nation. Since March 16 through April 2, AMC C-17s have delivered 3.5M COVID-19 testing swabs to meet nationwide demand. Additional missions are scheduled in the next couple of days.
You can find imagery of previous missions here: https://www.dvidshub.net/image/6145792/covid-19-testing-swabs-arrive-memphis
Lt. Gen. Thomas also highlighted that AMC recently transported 86 Americans from Columbia and Panama to the United States. These missions bring the total number of Americans returned by AMC Aircraft to more than 350 since March 19th. These missions are done in support of USTRANSCOM as it continues to support to Department of State led efforts to return American citizens and lawful permanent residents stranded abroad during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine's epidemiology laboratory is the Air Force's sole clinical reference laboratory, and as such, is testing and processing samples of COVID-19 sent from military treatment facilities around the world. The lab was authorized by the Defense Health Agency to test samples from Department of Defense beneficiaries for COVID-19 in early March, and received its test kit from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention shortly after.
You can read more about what the lab is doing here: https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2133728/air-force-lab-testing-samples-of-covid-19/
Instructors at the Special Instruments Training course at Goodfellow Air Force Base have begun using their skills to 3D print prototypes to supply the medical facilities in the area with N95 face masks and face shields. SPINSTRA has an innovation lab containing four 3D printers as well as 3D modeling software. Although they are unsure of the needs of the 17th Medical Group and surrounding hospitals, they plan to continue to create these medical supplies in case they are needed in the future.
You can read more about what 312th Training Squadron Special Instruments Training course is doing here: https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2135493/special-instruments-training-course-instructors-3d-print-medical-supplies/
Air Force Totals of COVID-19 Positive Cases as of 1:30 p.m., April 2, 2020.
| CASES | HOSPITALIZED | RECOVERED | DEATHS | |
| Military | 290(+26) | 16 (-3) | 25 (+2) | 0 |
| Civilian | 82 (+2) | 8 (-1) | 9 (+2) | 0 |
| Dependents | 72 (+7) | 4 (-2) | 5 | 0 |
| Contractors | 21 (+1) | 3 (-1) | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 465 | 31 | 39 | 0 |
Numbers in parenthesis are updated cases.
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