{"id":36168,"date":"2020-06-26T20:52:54","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T20:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/06\/26\/as-covid-19-spikes-across-us-troop-diagnoses-jump-20-percent-in-a-week\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:40:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:40:56","slug":"as-covid-19-spikes-across-us-troop-diagnoses-jump-20-percent-in-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/coronavirus\/2020\/06\/26\/as-covid-19-spikes-across-us-troop-diagnoses-jump-20-percent-in-a-week\/","title":{"rendered":"As COVID-19 spikes across US, troop diagnoses jump 20 percent in a week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The number of Defense Department-affiliated personnel diagnosed with COVID-19 this week jumped 18 percent from last week\u2019s numbers<\/a>, according to the latest data<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That came out to 2,345 new cases this week, up from 1,793 last week. Of this week\u2019s new cases, 1,782 were among troops<\/a>, a jump of 20 percent over the previous week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, since the department began releasing its numbers in mid-March, 10,606 service members have been diagnosed, and an additional 4,971 civilians, dependents and contractors have tested positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a spike in April, along with many hot spots in the country, DoD\u2019s cases began to trend downward in May. But June has erased that trend: the department added 6,128 cases in the past four weeks, versus 2,304 cases in the four weeks before that \u2015 the bulk of May \u2015 and 5,393 cases in the previous four weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spokespeople for the defense secretary\u2019s office and the Joint Staff did not respond to requests for comment on the rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end, senior leadership have also not done any in-person updates on the department\u2019s coronavirus pandemic efforts since early May. The defense and deputy defense secretaries, as well as the joint chiefs chairman, vice chairman and joint staff doctor, had periodically scheduled briefings dating back to early March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense Secretary Mark Esper last publicly addressed the pandemic during a White House announcement for Operation Warp Speed May 15, a multi-agency effort to get a vaccine to market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will deliver, by the end of this year a vaccine at scale to treat the American people and our partners abroad,\u201d Epser said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Friday, 0.5 percent of service members have contracted COVID-19, compared to 0.7 percent nationwide. Of those, 270 have been hospitalized, 5,736 have recovered and three have died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week also saw, for the first time, the Army surpass the Navy as the service with the most cases. Following outbreaks on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and the destroyer Kidd, 100-percent crew testing discovered more than 1,000 cases on TR and roughly 100 more on Kidd, though the Navy stopped publishing numbers on both ships within weeks of first reporting the outbreaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army has more than twice as many active-duty troops as the Navy, as well as several hundred thousand more in its reserve component, but it had been far outpaced by the Navy following those outbreaks. As of Friday, it is reporting 3,226 cases \u2015 a jump of 20 percent over last week \u2015 while the Navy is reporting 3,216, a 13 percent bump.<\/p>\n\n\n\t