USFK Soldier Speaks About Being Infected with the Coronavirus

Here is an interview in the Stars and Stripes with the first U.S. soldier in South Korea to be infected with the coronavirus:

Army Spc. Deontae Chappel, the first U.S. service member to test positive for the coronavirus, was “shocked” but not overly worried when he found out he had the respiratory disease in late February.

But then the 23-year-old network systems clerk learned his wife and toddler also had been infected and would be joining him in a hospital isolation unit on Camp Humphreys, the main U.S. military base in South Korea.

“The saddest thing throughout the entire process was knowing that my wife and daughter caught it. If it was just me, I would say, ‘OK I’m going to prevail,’” Chappel said Tuesday in his first interview since being discharged from medical care.

Stars & Stripes

Her is the most interesting part of the interview:

“The tests were fluctuating between positive and negative the entire time,” he said, sitting in a conference room in which everyone present was placed a socially distant 6 feet away from each other.

These fluctuations in test results is likely what explains the supposed “reinfections” of South Koreans that has been making media news.

You can read more at the link, but is good to hear that SPC Chappel and his family are doing well after this ordeal.