Military reports 9 COVID-19 cases

The military on Monday reported nine coronavirus cases among its members, including five soldiers.

Three soldiers and one Marine, all from different units, tested positive while on vacation, and another soldier was confirmed to have been infected in a test required to exit quarantine following his recent vacation, according to the defense ministry.

Currently, the military authorities enforces the Level 2 social distancing scheme, which allows service members to go on vacations while strictly adhering to antivirus measures, though one-day off-base trips are banned.

A civilian worker for the Army in the city of Icheon, south of Seoul, showed symptoms and tested positive.

"Around 170 members of his unit undertook tests, and most of them tested negative," a ministry official said.

The remaining Army soldier who commuted from his off-base residence in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, contracted the virus, after one of his family members tested positive, the ministry said, adding that a Marine officer in the southeastern city of Pohang and a civilian worker of the same unit tested positive after coming into contact with one of their colleagues who contracted the virus earlier.

The latest cases brought the total caseload among the military population to 644. Of them, 608 have been fully cured and 36 are under treatment.

The defense ministry added that it wrapped up the first round of the inoculation campaign last week, under which around 2,300 military doctors and health care workers received the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Around 88 percent of about 2,400 individuals subject to the first recipient group were inoculated," ministry spokesperson Boo Seung-chan told a regular briefing.

Some 12 percent refused to get a shot. The inoculation is voluntary basis.

The authorities plan to administer the vaccines to around 581,000 rank-and-file soldiers and military officers beginning in June in phases, officials said.

Nationwide, the country reported 415 more COVID-19 cases Monday, including 396 local infections, raising the total caseload to 99,075, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).(Yonhap)