The spouse of a soldier assigned to Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia died Thursday from complications related to the coronavirus, according to a message from installation commander U.S. Air Force Col. Clinton Ross.
“It is my deepest regret to inform you that a JBLE Army family member died from presumptive complications related to COVID-19 at a hospital in Newport News,” he wrote on the website of the 633rd Air Base Wing.
The Department of Defense reported the death Friday when it updated COVID-19 statistics with 39 additional cases, including 10 additional dependents, for a total of 108 total dependents. Three dependents remain hospitalized, and two have recovered.
To date, 652 cases of the coronavirus have been recorded across the Defense Department, 37 of which have recovered.
The message from Ross said the Army soldier whose spouse died is also COVID-19 positive and remains in isolation.
“I urge you to take this viral threat seriously. Your health and safety are my highest priority,” he wrote to the community of the combined Army and Air Force base.
In recent days, services have been projecting their readiness while also announcing increasingly restrictive measures on bases. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced a military-wide elevation of the Health Protection Condition to “Charlie,” the third-highest level. That means bases across the world have been maximizing telework, closing access points, conducting screenings, and taking temperatures.
Army chief of staff Gen. James C. McConville said Thursday that exercises and formations would be canceled and that the HPCON for his immediate response force would be raised to “Delta,” the highest level, to stop the spread of the virus. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David H. Berger took a different tack, declaring that his force’s readiness meant continued exercises.
“We are mandated by law to be the nation’s most ready force, and that’s what I think you expect us to be,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Navy evacuated five additional sailors from the USS Roosevelt in the Pacific before calling the ship to port in Guam to test all 5,000 sailors.
The continued impact on force readiness prompted Defense Secretary Esper to declare that service-specific numbers and locations would no longer be revealed.
“We are not going to disaggregate numbers because it could reveal information about where we may be affected at a higher rate than maybe some other places,” he told Reuters Thursday.
With more than 1,200 medical personnel deploying to New York and Washington to accompany three Army field hospitals, the Pentagon also announced Friday that more than 200 uniformed medical and graduate nursing students from the Uniformed Services University will forgo graduation ceremonies to join their military medical counterparts faster.
