Military praised for 'amazing work' during Covid-19 coronavirus crisis; Foreign Secretary says lives being saved as a result of armed forces' efforts
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Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has paid tribute to the armed forces for their role providing a wide range of support in the UK’s battle with Covid-19.
At today's Downing Street briefing he was joined by the chief medical officer Chris Whitty and the chief of the defence staff General Sir Nick Carter, the first time the UK’s most senior military officer has appeared at the briefing.
Mr Raab said: “I think it's only fitting to pay tribute to the amazing work of our fantastic armed forces and the whole Ministry of Defence led by defence secretary Ben Wallace.
“They have been there every step of the way, helping us to build the new NHS Nightingale hospitals to reinforce our critical care capacity, supporting our local resilience in delivering personal protective equipment where it is needed most and also helping deliver the mobile labs which are critical to ramping-up our testing capacity right across the country.
“As a result of those efforts and that teamwork hospitals have been able to treat more patients. As a result they save more lives and we have ensured that the peak of this virus has not overwhelmed the NHS.”
General Carter outlined a number of areas where the military was supporting the Covid-19 response from logistics with the Nightingale hospitals to assisting the Cabinet Office in combatting misinformation.
He said: “First and foremost this has been a logistic task and I would say that I think in all of my more than 40 years of service this has been the single greatest logistic challenge that I've come across.
“And we have been involved with the Cabinet Office rapid response unit, with our 77 Brigade helping to quash rumours from misinformation but also countering disinformation.
“It has involved defence civilians, defence contractors, scientists from Porton Down and something called the engineer and logistics staff corps where we bring in people from industry who work inside the military in times of crisis and provide expert support for how we might link in to the civilian community and, indeed, industrial support."
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