Snow cannon that the UME has adapted for its disinfectant tanks to facilitate cleaning tasks.
18 Revista Española de Defensa April 2020
>
•Collaboration in the assembly of a shelter for the homeless at
the Barcelona Trade Fair.
>SUNDAY 22ND
•The Armed Forces increase their support in the transport and
distribution of medical supplies.
•The King puts the Royal Guard at the disposal of the
operation.
>TUESDAY 24TH
•The Minister of Defence visits the Operations Command, from
where Operation Balmis is coordinated.
•Disinfection tasks in critical facilities, health centres and
nursing homes are intensified.
>WEDNESDAY 25TH
•Parliament ratifies the two-week extension
of the state of alarm approved by
the Government.
>THURSDAY 26TH
•An Air Force mobile ICU is delivered for the IFEMA field hospital.
• The Army reinforces the Military Central Hospital Gómez Ulla.
>FRIDAY 27TH
•A psychological care hotline is launched for deployed military
personnel.
•The Army begins the transfer of bodies to the morgue of the
Madrid Palacio del Hielo (ice skating rink).
>SATURDAY 28TH
•The Armed Forces have already intervened in 1,083 nursing
homes, 200 hospitals and health centres and 16 prisons.
>SUNDAY 29TH
•The Government decrees the cessation of all non-essential
activities for two weeks.
•The UME transfers patients between hospitals and to
medicalized hotels in Madrid.
Teams of between two and six people
work in the nursing homes, always
wearing Personal Protective Equipment
(PPE): overalls, latex gloves, masks and
goggles. “In larger spaces, such as the
Delicias train station in Zaragoza, we work
with an entire section”, explains the UME
Captain. In these places every corner
is disinfected: platforms, bathrooms,
escalators, railings, etc.
In addition, decontamination tasks
are carried out in large areas, such as
in the pavilions of IFEMA (Madrid’s trade
fair centre), where a provisional hospital
has been installed (see box), and in
logistics and supply platforms, such as
Mercamadrid or Merca Las Palmas.
NBC DEFENCE
The NBC Defence Regiment nº 1 is also
making a major effort in this area. In mid-
March, one of the teams from its base
in Paterna (Valencia) travelled to Bilbao
airport in two NH-90 helicopters of the
Army Airmobile Force (FAMET) to disinfect
the control tower and various transit areas.
Almost at the same time, another team of
21 troops were deployed at Adolfo Suárez
Madrid-Barajas airport.
“We have created two light decon-
tamination units, plus one on standby and
one more to support evacuation. In total, we
have 300 military personnel specialized in
detecting pathogenic agents”, said head
of regiment, Lieutenant Coronel José Luis
Munielo. In closed spaces, disinfection
is carried out in two stages. This is how
Captain Álvaro Michael, who is in charge
of one of these light decontamination
teams, explains it. “The first stage
takes place with the windows closed,
using thermal fog generators. Next, the
bedding, tablecloths or curtains and other
items are disinfected and subsequently
removed, leaving the room practically
bare. We then proceed to clean the entire
surface of the establishment, either with
70% ethyl alcohol or with a 0.01% sodium
hypochlorite solution that we prepare
using commercial bleach”.
Other Army units perform the same
tasks throughout the country. “We have
returned to wearing white overalls, as
happened in the Prestige crisis”, recalls
Second Lieutenant Jesús Martínez Noya,
at the helm of one of the operational
NBC sections of 7th Brigade Galicia.
His unit operates in those centres of
this autonomous community in which
personnel infected with SARS-Cov-2
have been identified. “If there are no
coronavirus sufferers”, he points out,
“other members of the brigade that we
are training carry out the work, always
under the guidance of a specialist NBC
non-commissioned officer”.
MILITARY HEALTHCARE
Although less visible, military doctors and
nurses are fighting on the front lines. “Up to
2,914 troops are dedicated body and soul
to curing the infected patients admitted to
the military healthcare network”, stressed
the CHOD in one of his speeches at the
UME (Military Emergencies Unit)