Soldiers called up to drive North Wales ambulances to support paramedics in Covid-19 battle
Military offer helping hand to health frontline for the second time this year as coronavirus cases rise once more
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British Army soldiers have been called back to help ambulance teams in Wales cope with the extreme pressure of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Welsh Ambulance Service said 94 soldiers will be re-enlisted from Wednesday to support teams responding to emergency callouts.
Wales was put into lockdown on Sunday with its latest seven-day Covid-19 case rate now at 623 per 100,000 people and rising, putting increased strain on the country s health services.
During the first wave of coronavirus in April, soldiers helped ambulance teams as part of the Ministry of Defence s 20,000-strong Covid Response Force, set up to put service personnel and reservists on standby to support public services.
BBC News
Published
image captionA pool of trained firefighters also helped the ambulance service earlier in the pandemic
Military medics have been drafted in by the Welsh Ambulance Service to help it deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 90 soldiers will be driving ambulances from Wednesday in a bid to ease pressure on the service as cases continue to rise.
It will be the second time they have helped during the pandemic.
The military has also helped the Welsh NHS by distributing PPE, building a temporary hospital in Cardiff and will help roll out the vaccine.
Welsh Ambulance Service chief executive Jason Killens said: The extreme pressure on our ambulance service in the last couple of weeks has been well documented, and it s why we ve taken the decision to re-enlist the military, who did a superb job of assisting us earlier in the year.
Fauci on new Covid-19 variant: Assume that it s here already
From CNN s Andrea Diaz
It s certainly possible that the new variant of coronavirus in the UK is already in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci said during an interview on ABC s Good Morning America on Tuesday. That s certainly possible I mean, when you have this amount of spread within a place like the UK, that you really need to assume that it s here already, and certainly is not the dominant strain, but I would not be surprised at all if it is already here, said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
Soldiers from the British Army will again partner up with ambulance teams in Wales to help deal with the “extreme pressure” on their service during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Welsh Ambulance Service said more than 90 soldiers will be re-enlisted to drive its vehicles from Wednesday to support teams responding to emergency callouts.
Wales was put into lockdown on Sunday with its latest seven-day Covid-19 case rate now at 623 cases per 100,000 people and rising, putting increased strain on the country’s health services.
Soldiers previously answered the call to back up ambulance teams in April during he first wave of the virus as part of the Ministry of Defence’s 20,000-strong Covid Response Force, set up to put service personnel and reservists on standby to support public services in response to the pandemic.