US Gifts Jamaica Large Field Hospital To Assist COVID-19 FIght
A media release by the US Southern Command says a large mobile field hospital was transported from Joint Base Charleston, S.C., to Kingston, Jamaica Sept. 19.
According to the release, it will be donated to health-care providers and used to support the Jamaica’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The donation, made on behalf of the American people, cost $753,000 and was purchased as part of U.S. Southern Command’s (SOUTHCOM) ongoing assistance to nations responding to the global pandemic in the Caribbean, Central America and South America, and funded by the command’s Humanitarian Assistance Program (HAP).
The SOUTHCOM-funded hospital can house up to 70 patient beds and will support health and public-safety professionals laboring tirelessly to care for patients, save lives and mitigate suffering.
The modular hospital is equipped to operate autonomously and includes a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) and ultraviolet-light air-scrubber system, two diesel generators, and eight air conditioning units. Medical teams using the hospital can configure it to isolate patients and conduct surgical operations, if needed.
The field hospital will be set up Sept. 21-23 and delivered ready for the Jamaican government to staff, equip and operate. A team of civilian trainers will instruct Jamaican medical and support teams chosen to run the mobile hospital on its assembly, set up, use, disassembly, transportation and storage.
The United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), located in Doral, Florida in Greater Miami, is one of the eleven unified combatant commands in the United States Department of Defense.
It is responsible for providing contingency planning, operations, and security cooperation for Central and South America, the Caribbean (except U.S. commonwealths, territories, and possessions), their territorial waters, and for the force protection of U.S. military resources at these locations.
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