Coronavirus | Agustín Rossi: “If required, the Armed Forces will appear”

Defense Minister Agustín Rossi assured this Saturday in dialogue with TN that all the resources of the different military units are available to try to contain the expansion of the coronavirus in Argentina. “If required, the Armed Forces will appear”, he claimed.

“We have the full capacity of the Armed Forces and of men, which are 90 thousand, destined to participate in different ways in everything that means fighting the coronavirus pandemic,” said the head of the Defense ministry.

The official assured that, in case the security minister (Sabina Frederic) requires it, “the Armed Forces will appear” to strengthen controls. In this sense, he stressed that “within what the Law says, the security forces can contribute from different places to logistical support“and recalled that they are already participating in various actions, from distributing food to the repatriation of Argentines stranded in other countries.

This Saturday the Minister of National Security, Sabina Frederic, warned that the Government “does not rule out” declaring a state of siege to ensure that preventive and mandatory social isolation is met. “Compliance with quarantine was quite massive but more is needed,” he said.

Rossi assured that “everything the Armed Forces have is at the disposal of this operation and it is being articulated in each region. We have military hospitals and accommodation possibilities. “

The Argentine Army began this Saturday to install a Relocatable Military Hospital in the Campo de Mayo garrison to expand its capacity to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic in Argentina.

“The Relocatable Military Hospital joins the entire structure of Military Health that the Armed Forces make available to face the pandemic, and that in the metropolitan area of ​​Buenos Aires it already has the Central Military Hospital, the Naval Hospital, the Aeronautical Hospital and the Campo de Mayo Hospital, “said the Defense Minister.

In addition, this morning two Air Force Hercules C 130 aircraft left for Peru to repatriate 140 Argentines stranded in that country because of the quarantine and take 140 other Peruvian citizens who were in Argentina.

Rossi dismissed the crew and stressed that “it is very important what the Armed Forces are doing, the commitment of each one of the members” and asked the population “to take all care to protect their own health.”