Tag: USFK

Here is some good news for service members in Area IV:

Clusters of new cases at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul and at Humphreys prompted weeklong lockdowns starting Jan. 15 while health authorities tracked down potentially infected individuals.

“Area IV’s record of success — including low confirmed cases, zero on-installation positive cases since April 2020, and their reduction of the threat to the community — have contributed to USFK’s decision to adjust its HPCON level to Bravo in Area IV,” USFK commander Gen. Robert Abrams said in the release.

The last USFK case reported in the area involved a service member’s dependent who tested positive on April 25 after returning from a trip to the United States.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest coronavirus infections in USFK:

Nine USFK-affiliated individuals tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 29 and Feb. 4.One U.S. service member stationed at K-16 Air Base in Seongnam, tested positive on Jan. 29 after providing a screening sample as part of USFK’s enhanced surveillance testing program.Five U.S. service members stationed at Camp Casey and one U.S. service member stationed on Camp Carroll, each tested positive on Feb. 4 after providing a screening sample as part of USFK’s enhanced surveillance testing program.One ROK service member, who is assigned to a combined US-ROK unit stationed on U.S. Army Garrison – Humphreys, tested positive on Feb. 4 during his mandatory test required to exit quarantine.

The spouse of a U.S. service member assigned to U.S. Army Garrison – Humphreys and has access to the installation, tested positive on Feb. 4 during her mandatory test required to exit quarantine. All individuals are currently in isolation at a USAG – Humphreys facility designated for confirmed COVID-19 cases.

USFK Facebook page

You can read more at the link.

The coronavirus issues within USFK has continued to spread, now to Kunsan Airbase:

U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) on Friday imposed movement restrictions on all individuals affiliated with its air base in the western city of Gunsan due to the recent coronavirus outbreak there.

Under the order, travel to and from Kunsan Air Base is prohibited until Monday, though members can be granted exceptions “to perform assigned and authorized duties and missions only,” USFK said in a Facebook post.

The directive came a day after three service members on the base tested positive for COVID-19.

One service member was confirmed to have been infected, then two of his colleagues tested positive after coming into direct contact with him, according to U.S. military.

Up until Friday, USFK had reported a total of 648 COVID-19 patients among its population.

USFK also has enforced a “shelter in place” directive through Sunday that calls on service members at the Yongsan garrison in central Seoul to stay at home except for necessary activities.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

For the first time USFK has had to deal with a cluster infection from the coronavirus:

Coronavirus clusters at the U.S. Army’s largest installation in South Korea and at its former headquarters in Seoul are forcing personnel to “shelter in place” throughout the long holiday weekend.

The order, announced at 6 a.m. Saturday on U.S. Forces Korea’s official Facebook page, went into effect immediately for those stationed at Camp Humphreys — headquarters for USFK, Eighth Army and the 2nd Infantry Division — and Yongsan Garrison, 55 miles to the north. It expires at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.

“USFK defines ‘shelter in place’ as remaining at your residence – including other occupants or residents – except for life, health, safety and essential services to include food and medicine purchases,” the announcement said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but USFK has had 19 new infections since Thursday and they try to conduct contact tracing to identify other potentially infected people. Having people shelter in place is help stop any spread while the contact tracers do their work.

Korean workers on U.S. military bases are the first Koreans to be vaccinated against COVID-19:

One of the first Koreans to be vaccinated against Covid-19, a Korean employee of a U.S. Army base in North Gyeongsang, spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo about having chills and muscle pains after a shot of Moderna’s vaccine — side effects familiar from flu shots.  
   
“I had muscle pains in my left arm, where I got the shot, for about two days,” a man in his 50s who works on the U.S. Army base in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday.  
   
“Some of my coworkers reported having mild fevers,” he continued, “but most of our side effects did not last more than two days.”  
   
The first shipment of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines for the U.S. Forces Korea arrived in the country in late December. The South Korean government said that Korean soldiers and civilians working on the U.S. Army bases can take the shots if they wish to.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

USFK continues to do a great job catching people infected with the coronavirus when they arrive in Korea:

Forty-two people affiliated with the U.S. military, including 37 service members, have tested positive for the new coronavirus upon their arrival in South Korea, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Monday.

Of the total, eight service members and a dependent arrived at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on government-chartered flights while 29 service members, a civilian and three dependents arrived here on commercial flights via Incheon International Airport, west of the capital, according to the U.S. military.

They all arrived between Dec. 28 and Friday.

All of them have been transferred to isolation facilities for COVID-19 patients at the U.S. military bases in South Korea. 

“The high number of USFK-affiliated confirmed with COVID-19 was due to the normal individual relocation moves to USFK, as well as those returning to USFK from off-peninsula over the Christmas and New Year holiday period,” a USFK official said, stressing that “none of the new arrivals have interacted with anyone residing within USFK installations or the local community.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty impressive that USFK has not had one cluster infection occur during this entire pandemic.

Here is another example of the effectiveness of the test and quarantine strategy implemented by USFK on newly arriving personnel:

 Seventeen American service members and six others affiliated with the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) tested positive for the new coronavirus upon arrival in South Korea from the United States, the U.S. military said Monday. 

The latest cases among the USFK-affiliated population rose to 509, most of whom have tested positive upon arrival in South Korea from the U.S.

Of the newly reported cases, eight service members and one dependent arrived at Osan Air Base in the city of Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on U.S. government chartered flights from the U.S. between Dec. 16 and 29, according to USFK.

Nine service members, three dependents, one contractor and one retired service member arrived on international commercial flights at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, between Dec. 16 and 31, it added.

Nine of them tested positive on their first mandatory COVID-19 test prior to entering quarantine. Two of them were confirmed to have been infected in a subsequent test while in quarantine, and the remainder tested positive in their mandatory test required to exit quarantine, the U.S. military said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Santa brought the coronavirus vaccine for some U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan:

U.S. Forces Korea will start administering the Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus to frontline health care workers and first responders “over the next few days,” the USFK commander, Gen. Robert Abrams, announced Tuesday.

In a message on the USFK website, Abrams said the command would receive “additional shipments of the vaccine to inoculate all USFK-affiliated community members as production and distribution increases.”

He did not specify a timeline for wider distribution of the vaccine. “I ask that our community remains patient and flexible as the additional shipments arrive,” Abrams wrote. (…….)

In Japan, the same vaccine is expected to arrive, destined for six U.S. bases with medical treatment facilities, “within the next 24-48 hours,” Chief Master Sgt. Rick Winegardner Jr., senior enlisted leader of U.S. Forces Japan, said on American Forces Network Radio on Wednesday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.