Covid Support Force in numbers

Since March 2020 our Armed Forces have responded to over 200 MACA requests to tackle the UK’s Covid-19 outbreak, from assisting with testing to setting up the NHS Nightingale hospitals. Here are some key numbers that break down that effort as of the start of November 2020.

Corporal Santosh Gurung of the Royal Logistics Corps prepares Personal Protective Equipment to be handed out to local schools.

2,000 Liverpool testers

Around 2,000 military personnel are being deployed to support the Covid-19 mass testing initiative in Liverpool, assisting local authorities with logistics and delivering lateral flow tests.

50 medics

50 military medics have supported Public Health England testing trials in three schools for three days. The Defence Medics tested 1500 staff and pupils at three schools in England, as part of a trial to evaluate the effectiveness of rapid antigen tests in a school environment.

RAF personnel collecting Covid home testing kits with Birmingham City Council staff, from residents in Birmingham.

110 Birmingham testers

110 military personnel have been deployed to support Birmingham City Council’s Covid-19 Drop and Collect Testing Initiative to help increase testing capacity. In Nottingham, military personnel are also helping to coordinate a volunteer network who are helping to deliver the Drop and Collect self-test initiative.

6 Environmental Health Officers

6 Environmental Health Officers (EHO) are supporting the Merseyside Local Resilience Forum and Halton Borough Council. The EHO are trained extensively in outbreak management and can interpret the information gathered by the NHS Track and Trace call handlers to identify and map trends, clusters and sources of infection.

600 MOD staff

Approximately 600 people are currently working on Covid-19 related tasks across the Ministry of Defence.

Sergeant Jenny Hall from the Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service carries out some equipment checks inside of an ambulance.

255 ambulance workers

255 tri-Service personnel supported the East, South West, South Central, London, and Welsh Ambulances Services with Co-Responders, drivers, decontamination teams and logistic support earlier this year.

666 engineering personnel

666 personnel were tasked to provide general engineering support and deliver infrastructure tasks including work on the NHS Nightingale Hospitals.

Military personnel assisting at the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

6.1 million PPE items

6.1 million items of PPE were delivered to hospitals across England by teams from the Immediate Resupply Group (IRG). The teams deployed up to 15 times in a single day to deliver this vital task.

3,134 Mobile Testing Unit personnel

3,134 Armed Forces personnel were committed to the Mobile Testing Unit task at its height, delivering around 930,000 tests to the public.

Craftsman Suggett from 2nd Battalion REME collects sealed Covid-19 tests from the public.

Read more about what a MACA is:

Military Aid to Civil Authorities (MACA): A force for good

Find out where else the UK Armed Forces are deployed here 👇