S. Korea, US military report 31 infections

Twenty-seven members of the South Korean military tested positive for COVID-19 as of Sunday, as 8,880 service members have been quarantined.

Infected personnel included soldiers, officers and civilian workers; Fifteen of them were in the Army and 10 were in the Air Force, with one each in the Navy and Marine Corps. The military has taken the precaution of an expanded quarantine to curb COVID-19 since it identified the first patient on Feb. 20.

The total number of infected patients from United States Forces Korea stood at four. The US military reported the first infection on Feb. 24, when a widow of a former service member tested positive for COVID-19 after visiting its base in Daegu.

On Wednesday, a service member stationed at Camp Carroll in North Gyeongsang Province near Daegu tested positive, while on Friday a Korean national employee at the same base was diagnosed with the disease.

A wife of the service member identified as infected on Wednesday was the fourth patient with COVID-19. The soldier, his wife and their infant child were transported from Daegu to an isolation unit at Camp Humphreys at the US military headquarters in Pyeongtaek.

Korea is on its highest alert against the coronavirus, while the US military has set its risk level at “high.” Korea’s nonessential military personnel stationed in Daegu were allowed to work from home this week, whereas the US military banned all nonessential travel and visits to its Daegu installations.

On Thursday, Korea and the US postponed their annual joint military exercises until further notice because of the outbreak that had over 3,700 confirmed cases and had killed 18 people in Korea, as of press time. It was the first time the two allies put off the drills over a pandemic.

By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)