Four USFK-affiliated people test positive for COVID-19

Two US Department of Defense officials and two dependents of a service member based in South Korea have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the US Forces Korea (USFK) said Tuesday.

One of the officials, who works at US Army Garrison Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 on Saturday following his direct contact with a person who tested positive earlier, according to the US military.

The other department official working at the USFK base in Yongsan, central Seoul, tested positive Monday in a mandatory test required to exit quarantine.

Two dependents of a service member in Yongsan who have access to the installation also tested positive on Saturday and Monday following USFK's surveillance testing. They last visited the base on Thursday.

The four of them are all now at an isolation facility for COVID-19 patients at Camp Humphreys.

"KDCA and USFK health professionals are actively conducting contact tracing to determine whether anyone else may have been exposed to these individuals, and to identify and ensure all known on-post and off-post facilities visited are thoroughly cleaned," the US military said in a release. KDCA stands for the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The latest cases raised the total infections reported among the USFK-related population to 669.
 
On Tuesday, USFK said it conducted its first ever drive-through COVID-19 testing at the Yongsan base "for personnel who are on home quarantine needing their day-12 COVID tests."

USFK also said the restriction of movement order on Kunsan Air Base in the western city of Gunsan was extended until Wednesday due to the ongoing contact tracing after a number of virus cases were reported there. (Yonhap)