Military installations across the world upgraded their health security level to “Charlie,” and the Department of Defense reported 94 more COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infected personnel to 415.
“Everyone keeps asking, ‘What’s going to happen in two weeks? What’s going to happen in three weeks?” said Joint Chiefs of Staff Surgeon Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs in a Pentagon briefing Wednesday. “We don’t know.”
Friedrichs said predictive modeling cannot be used in the military because the data is changing too fast, but elevating to Health Protection Condition Charlie and employing best practices used by U.S. Forces Korea could help mitigate the spread of the disease. The number of active-duty service members reportedly infected by the virus rose by 53 overnight to a total of 227, with 19 recoveries as of Wednesday.
“Our curve is not flattening,” he admitted, as five more personnel were hospitalized. “We have to balance both the health and protection of our service members with our responsibility to this nation to continue to defend it.”
Friedrichs said the military is working to prioritize who should be tested and expects positive cases to continue to rise as more people are tested. Certain areas with lower testing priority include forces in Africa, where the disease is not yet prevalent.
President Trump said at the White House on Tuesday that he hoped the virus would be contained and that restrictions would begin scaling back by Easter. The DOD said Wednesday it is forecasting more infections as it ratcheted up restrictions globally.
“From a three-week perspective, based on the planning factors that we have, we think that we are going to continue to see this, no surprise, continue to grow,” Friedrichs said.
The military announced Tuesday that beginning March 31, it will postpone most elective surgeries, invasive procedures, and dental procedures for 60 days to prioritize healthcare resources.
The Army also issued deployment orders for three combat support hospitals to provide extra trauma beds so that New York and Washington hospitals could open up space for COVID-19 patients.
The new health protection level, which took effect at the Pentagon on Monday, means fewer access points, increased screenings, and some temperature checks.
Additional recommendations include maximizing telework and canceling in-person meetings, but the DOD has yet to impose restrictions on mass formations and training, leaving it up to each commander to decide.
Friedrichs emphasized that the military is not expecting the situation to improve in the short term.
“I want to be very careful that I don’t create a false sense of security that we’ve got the ability to predict what will happen in three weeks,” he said.
“This is a pandemic. This is a significant infectious disease outbreak,” he said. “It is going to be weeks, not days. It’s going to take intensive measures, as we are implementing, to mitigate it.”
