US Navy Deploys Medical Team To Navajo Reservation To Battle Pandemic

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2021) About a dozen US Navy medical specialists are fighting the spread of COVID-19 at a Navajo reservation that spans two southwestern states, the Defense Department said in a press release on Thursday.

"Approximately 12 Navy personnel deployed to the Navajo Nation reservation in New Mexico and Arizona to provide support to the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, New Mexico," the release said. "The medical personnel have been working side-by-side with civilian and US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps health care providers to help treat COVID-19 patients."

Each member of the Navy team can treat up to eight patients at a time in a ward set aside for COVID-19 victims that features an open room with beds positioned along side each other, the release said.

The medical center is part of the US Indian Health Service, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, which serves about 2.6 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to 574 federally recognized tribes in 37 states, according to the release.

A recent study by the US Centers for Disease Control found levels of COVID-19 infections in American Indian and Alaskan Native populations 3.5 times higher than among non-Hispanic Whites.