Burns receives COVID-19 briefing from PA adjutant general on veterans’ homes, National Guard efforts
‘When you want something done right, you call the National Guard’
Rep. Frank Burns May 12, 2020 | 3:45 PM
HARRISBURG, May 12 – Committed to seeing the best care for our veterans and service members, state Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria, was in Harrisburg today for a briefing by state Adj. Gen. Anthony Carrelli on the steps the state National Guard has taken to secure the eight veterans homes in Pennsylvania.
“When you want something done right, you call in the National Guard,” Burns said. “I want to thank the adjutant general, the National Guard, and the state employees who are doing everything they can to protect those veterans who protected us all.”
According to Carrelli’s testimony, the PA National Guard has roughly 1,200 Guard members on various duty statuses supporting the state’s COVID-19 response. These missions include providing medical support to community testing sites, supporting mortuary affairs, combating food insecurity by transporting, packing and delivering food to community distribution centers, setting up FEMA field hospital sites, and supporting long-term care facilities with site surveys, training support and staff augmentation.
Approximately 150 Pennsylvania National Guard providers, nurses and general-purpose service-members are assisting eight long-term care facilities across the commonwealth -- an unprecedented level of support during this pandemic.
“We are in the midst of an emergency; none of us have experienced anything like this in our lifetimes,” Gen. Carrelli told Burns and the other members of the House Veterans and Emergency Preparedness Committee. “Our National Guard is actively assisting homes on the verge of collapse, in dire need to regroup. The presence of the National Guard provides the facilities critical time to regroup its staff, PPE and contracts to prepare to take on the next day. Everyone is doing all that they can in these very challenging times, and in circumstances that are far less than ideal. I am confident, however, that our veterans home staff and National Guard members are doing the best that they can every day, their commitment, and the selfless care they bring to others is exceptional.”