About 75 Air Force and Army doctors, nurses and other medical personnel have deployed to four California hospitals struggling to cope with a surge in the state's COVID-19 cases.
At the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Army North, the Joint Force Land Component Command of U.S. Northern Command, is overseeing the deployments to back up overworked California hospital staff, according to a release.
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"Our military medical personnel provided strong support to the state of California during the summer and I know they will bring much needed relief to their civilian healthcare partners now," Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson, commander of ARNORTH, said in a statement.
The deployments involve 65 Air Force doctors, nurses and others from the 60th Medical Group at Travis Air Force Base, California, and 10 Army nurses from the 627th Hospital Center, Fort Carson, Colorado.
The military medical personnel were sent to four hospitals in California: Dameron Hospital in Stockton; Adventist Health Lodi Memorial Hospital in Lodi; Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton; and Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, the statement said.
In addition to the support to California, about 100 military medical personnel are currently working alongside civilian healthcare providers in North Dakota, Wisconsin and in the Navajo Nation in response to the pandemic, according to ARNORTH.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, California this month has been reporting the highest number of new daily COVID-19 cases per capita in the nation.
California has reported an average of 100.5 daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. Tennessee, with the second-highest case rate, has an average of 89.6 daily cases per 100,000 residents, the CDC reported Saturday.
-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
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