The Pentagon reported its largest single increase in a day of coronavirus infections with 161 new cases, while the New Jersey National Guard reported the death of a U.S. Army Medical Command member.
“I am deeply saddened by the COVID-19-related death of Army Capt. Douglas Linn Hickok, a physician assistant who was a New Jersey National Guardsman,” said Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau in a statement released Tuesday.
Hickok, 57, died Saturday after being diagnosed March 21. He was in the process of being activated to assist in the coronavirus response when he was sickened.
Across the department, there are currently 1,204 coronavirus cases, including 65 hospitalizations.
The number of infected includes 673 service members, 247 civilians, 212 dependents, and 72 contractors. Four individuals have died of the virus, and 51 have recovered.
The Pentagon said Monday night that it would restrict the release of certain information regarding how the coronavirus was affecting the services, following comments Secretary Mark Esper made last week.
“We will not report the aggregate number of individual service member cases at individual unit, base or Combatant Commands,” said Department of Defense press secretary Alyssa Farah in a statement.
Farah said the move was made “out of a concern for operational security with regard to readiness.”
In recent weeks, commanders across the services have been challenged to explain how they will maintain readiness amid canceled exercises and uneven social distancing guidelines at bases globally.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Thomas Spoehr of the Heritage Foundation told the Washington Examiner that the rapid rate of contagion in the military is to be expected.
“It’s all based on close contact with your fellow service members,” he said, citing examples of the Marine Corps suspending new recruit transfers to base camp at Parris Island and the Navy’s USS Roosevelt carrier docking in Guam to test its 5,000 sailors after eight sailors tested positive and were flown off the carrier while in the Pacific.
“There’s no effective social isolation in the military,” he said.
Spoehr described how bunk beds are spaced 3 feet apart, and sailors on carriers are even closer.
“Everybody’s in close quarters. They’re sliding down the same set of stairs, so the surfaces are all getting touched by the same people. The military — Army, Marines — are all the same.”
The contagion is already starting to affect the Armed Forces’ ability to defend the nation.
“We have one aircraft carrier already offline,” Spoehr said of the Roosevelt. “The good news is, 99.9% of military people are under the age of 55.”
Joint Chiefs of Staff Surgeon Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs said March 25 that the youth of military members was favorable for their recovery, but the department is balancing the health of service members with its responsibility to defend the nation.
