US military bases in Okinawa hit by COVID-19 as outbreak worsens
USA United States military personnel on the Japanese island of Okinawa are on virtual lockdown after almost 100 cases of coronavirus have emerged on several US Marine Corps bases there.
The lockdown order, which was issued Saturday morning, bans almost all offbase movement by the tens of thousands of US military personnel on the bases unless approved by an officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel or above. The order includes the vital Kadena Air Base, which bills itself the hub of US air power in the Pacific, and comes after US admirals last week touted the “extraordinary measures” the Navy had taken to restore US military readiness in the region in the face of the worsening pandemic.
The Okinawa prefectural governor’s office said 94 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed among the personnel at the US Marines Corps’ Air Station Futenma, Camp Hansen and Camp Kinza as of Monday afternoon. Maj. Kenneth Kunze, communications strategy and operations officer for the US Marines in Okinawa, confirmed the numbers provided to the Okinawa government were accurate and said contact tracing was underway on the island to see if there were any more cases. Hundreds of Marines and their family members were being tested, he said. A statement from US Air Force Brig. Gen Joel Carey, the commander of Kadena Air Base, on Friday said “multiple new positive cases” had emerged on US military facilities on the island as well as three cases among the local population. “The US cases have primarily been Marines assigned to MCAS Futenma and Camp Hansen, and have been a mix of both travel related and those with origins we’ve yet to be able to identify indicating the potential of a reemergence of community spread,” Carey’s statement posted on the base’s website said. Kunze said any travel-related cases would have come through Kadena on a flight from Seattle, which also stops at US military bases in Yokota and Iwakuni, Japan. But as of Monday afternoon Japan time, no COVID-19 cases had been reported on Kadena.
( CNN )