Photo By Ryan Campbell | Army Pfc. Sydney Smith, a MP assigned to the 206th Military Police Company and Spc....... read more read more
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TROY, New York--Since April 4, 2020, the New York National Guard has assembled more than 10.4 million COVID-19 test kits which have been shipped statewide to public testing sites, nursing homes, schools, universities and hospitals.
The operation, which started out in a room at the New York State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center building in Albany, and then expanded into a former armory now owned by Russell Sage College.
In August 2020, the operation needed more room and better climate control and moved to an ice arena in Troy, New York. The floor where the Hudson Valley Community College Vikings skate is packed with supplies and boxes of inventory are stacked to the top of the bleachers.
Early in the mission, packaging 18,000 test kits in a workday was a pretty big deal, recalled New York Army National Guard Spc. Aubree Brothers, who has been on the mission from the start. Now, the 20-member team can package enough items for 100,000 test kits daily, the Delta Company, 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion Soldier said.
On April 7, a little more than year after starting the mission, military members who work in the Hudson Valley Community College ice arena, hit the 10 million test kits mark.
It’s good to be able to tout that accomplishment, said Army National Guard Pfc. Sydney Smith, a MP from the 206th Military Police Company, and a Niskayuna, New York resident, who has been on the mission for a month.
“I feel good about it,” she said. “We are helping out the community.”
The New York National Guard team, led by Air Guard Senior Master Sgt. Darla Roote, a member of the Syracuse, New York based 152nd Air Operations Group, works at the direction of the New York State Department of Health and the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.
The Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center—the state’s premier health research facility commonly known as Wadsworth Lab—determines how many test kits need to be made and shipped each week, said Melissa Nussbaum, the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services program manager who oversees the test kit operation.
Her team works the logistics piece to meet that requirement, Nussbaum said. The Guardsmen and women play a critical role in making sure the test kits get assembled and shipped, she added.
Monday is the big day for the COVID-19 test kit assembly team, Roote said.
The team spends the previous week getting materials ready for packing and shipping via United Parcel Service truck based on the Department of Health order for kits. Supplies are quality checked and boxes are labeled to indicate how many test sets are inside and where they are going, she explained.
On Monday, the supplies are pushed out. Kits go to 15 New York State run COVID-19 testing sites, universities, schools, nursing homes and hospitals and other locations as required.
Each kit consists of a nose swab, a vial full of a liquid, which is part of the testing process, and an absorbent pad to wipe up any leaks from the vials.
A team of Soldiers charged with quality control eyeball the liquid inside the vials to make sure it hasn’t gone bad.
If the liquid looks like pink drink its okay, explained Spc. Christopher Udell, a member of the 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion who has been on the mission since April 2020. If it looks like murky pond water then it has gone bad and that vial cannot be used, the Lockport, New York resident added.
When the mission first started, the National Guard Soldiers and Airmen assembled complete test kits, said Spc. Sterling Jolly, another 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion Soldier. The three items—swab, liquid vial, and an absorbent pad—were packaged inside plastic bags and then packed in boxes, the Knoxville, Pennsylvania resident explained.
But in June, 2020 the system changed.
The Guardsman stopped making complete test kits. Instead they would package the three main item and the plastic “bio bag” were counted out into sets and then packed in boxes for shipping. This switch to “mass production” allowed the National Guard team on site to ship far more test kits, Brother said.
This is when the numbers of kits shipped really began growing, Udell said.
Along with members of the Army and Air National Guard, the test kit making team also includes members of the New York Naval Militia-- the state’s force of Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard reservists who sign up to do state duty as well as their federal service—and the New York Guard, the state’s volunteer defense force.
It’s a good team and a good mission, said Brothers, who is a Williamson, New York resident.
“It feels like we are helping,” she added.
| Date Taken: | 04.14.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 04.14.2021 09:04 |
| Story ID: | 393798 |
| Location: | TROY , NY, US |
| Web Views: | 202 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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