hankyoreh

A US military helicopter lands at Camp Humphreys, in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. (Shin So-young, staff photographer)

The number of COVID-19 cases among US military personnel and family members stationed in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, has surged in July, with reports indicating that 87 individuals have tested positive for the virus so far.

Gyeonggi Province officials and others told the Hankyoreh on July 23 that nine more American soldiers at Pyeongtaek had tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. All cases identified between July 9 and 20 occurred following visits to the US. Some of the infected service members reportedly presented symptoms such as headaches, vomiting, and coughing.

The latest cases bring the tally of COVID-19 infections at Camp Humphreys, in Pyeongtaek, to 87, including 66 service members and 21 family members and military employees. There have been a total of 133 COVID-19 cases in the wider Pyeongtaek area.

Pyeongtaek is the city in Gyeonggi Province (1,479 cases) with the third largest number of cases, after Bucheon (185) and Seongnam (183), with American soldiers and family members accounting for 65.4% of the city’s caseload.

Only 22 coronavirus cases occurred on the US military base during the three months from March to June, but there have been 65 in the month of July alone.

“The sharp increase in confirmed cases on the base appears to have been caused by American troops being rotated in from overseas,” a Pyeongtaek city official said. “Excluding the cases imported from overseas, there have not been any confirmed cases for two months in a row among American troops stationed in the country.”

“American soldiers arriving from overseas are administered a COVID-19 test immediately upon arrival. They’re quarantined for treatment at a base hospital if they test positive and placed under self-quarantine if they do not. In either case, they aren’t allowed to travel around Pyeongtaek or make contact with its residents,” a city official said.

By Hong Yong-duk, South Gyeonggi correspondent

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