NEW DELHI: Headquarters of the armed forces will now work with the bare minimum staff after PM Narendra Modi ordered a 21-day complete lockdown in the country, even as the Army medical quarantine facility in Jodhpur received another 277 evacuees from Iran on Wednesday.Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat , on his part, said the armed forces were providing “every type of assistance” to the government, from developing infrastructure for isolation and quarantine to preparing specialty medical care centers. “At this juncture, it is time for the uniformed services to operate beyond their mandate,” he said.The Navy, for instance, deployed a Dornier aircraft from its base at Goa to ferry a team of civilian doctors and some suspected Covid-19 samples for testing to Pune on Wednesday. The four doctors will undergo training at Pune to set up a Covid test facility in Goa.In New Delhi, offices of the Army, Navy and IAF, including the ones at the iconic South Block on the Raisina Hill, in fact, were virtually shut on Wednesday to review the situation and work out the roster of the skeletal staff needed for essential duties in wake of the coronavirus outbreak.“Only essential offices like the war rooms, military operations and communications centers will be manned. This will amount to around 10-15% of the staff. The rest of the officers and other ranks will work from homes,” said an official.The three Services are also operating several quarantine facilities or “Wellness Centers” around the country, as part of the larger national effort in preventing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.The Army facilities at Manesar, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur currently have evacuees from Iran, Italy and Malaysia. “The earlier evacuees from China, especially Wuhan, and Japan have already been discharged after full protocols were observed,” said another official.“Of the over 1,200 evacuees, medical staff and air crew kept in these facilities till now, only one positive case of Covid-19 has been reported so far. Another positive case was reported from the IAF Facility at Hindon ,” he added.The Army has also kept on standby additional medical facilities, with capacity of 1,600 beds, at Jhansi, Binnaguri and Gaya. Similarly, the Navy and IAF have also readied additional facilities at different places.