Nearly 90% of Fort Benning personnel have received COVID vaccine, general says
The number of military personnel at Fort Benning vaccinated against COVID-19 has more than doubled since Aug. 24, when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signed a memo mandating COVID-19 vaccines for uniformed members of the Armed Forces.
The mandate was in line with previous statements from Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, who said in July that the coronavirus vaccine would be voluntary for military members until it received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Austin’s memo came a day after the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine.
The day the mandate was ordered, 47% of Fort Benning military personnel had at least one dose of the vaccine, Fort Benning and Maneuver Center of Excellence Commanding General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement to the Ledger-Enquirer. As of Oct. 14, that number has risen to 88%.
“We at Fort Benning have made COVID-19 vaccines part of our normal medical readiness requirements and began mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations of Soldiers using the FDA approved Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty COVID 19 vaccine,” he said.
Every active duty soldier, barring those with an approved exemption, will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 15, Donahoe said. The deadline for the reserve components is June 20, 2022.
As the delta variant surged in July, Donahoe urged people to get vaccinated after seeing a spike in cases and an increased number of young trainees in the intensive care unit. Now, all new soldiers will be vaccinated when they arrive on post, unless they have an exemption.
In response to President Joe Biden’s executive order requiring all federal employees to get the vaccine, the Department of Defense implemented a mandate requiring civilian employees who do not have an exemption to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 22. New employees must be fully vaccinated by their start date or Nov. 22, whichever is closer.
COVID-19 cases at Fort Benning are included in the data reported by Chattahoochee County, and people ages 18-29 make up the largest age group to have tested positive for COVID, with 4,256 cases as of Oct. 18, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. The next largest age group was people ages 30-39, with 397 cases.
Additionally, 92.6% of cases reported in the county were among men, with 4,646 cases as of Oct. 19. Women accounted for only 7% of cases in Chattahoochee County with 352 cases, and in 17 cases the sex was unknown.
Here are the latest COVID-19 trends in Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties, according to DPH data.
Muscogee County
Muscogee County reported a two-week case rate of 157 cases per 100,000 people as of Oct. 21. There were 300 coronavirus cases reported in Muscogee County in the last two weeks.
The seven-day moving average on Oct. 21 was 19.4 cases, continuing the downward trend of the past month. The seven-day moving average is found by taking the number of cases reported in the last seven days, adding them up and then dividing by seven.
Muscogee County reported 12 deaths in the last week. This brings the number of COVID-19 deaths in the county up to 40 for October.
Over the last week, 1,917 new viral tests were reported, and Muscogee County’s test positivity rate for the past two weeks is 9.5%.
There are 85,997 residents (44%) in Muscogee County who have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 76,503 (39%) are fully vaccinated.
Chattahoochee County
The county reported one death in October so far. There have been 5,099 cases and 14 deaths since the pandemic began.
There were 37 new viral tests reported in the last week, and Chattahoochee County’s test positivity rate for the past two weeks is 3.6%.
It is important to note that all residents and soldiers-in-training at Fort Benning who test positive for COVID-19 are counted in Chattahoochee County’s totals.
Chattahoochee County has fully vaccinated only 20% (2,095 people) of its residents, as of Oct. 21, and 23% (2,411 people) of residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Georgia update
Total cases: 1,256,278 (+7,215 reported since Oct. 15). The number of new cases reported in a day may not match the difference in total cases over a 24-hour period. This occurs because previously reported cases may be removed as duplicate reports are corrected. An older confirmed case may also be reclassified as additional information is collected during an investigation.
Vaccination Rate: 55% of Georgians have received at least one dose, while 49% are fully vaccinated.
Total deaths: 24,239 (+563 deaths since Oct. 15). It’s important to note that these numbers indicate when deaths are reported to the Georgia Department of Public Health. It does not reflect when these deaths occurred.
Positivity rate for Georgia today: 11.1%. The rate over the past two weeks is 5.9% positive.
Current COVID hospitalizations: 190 hospitalizations reported on Oct. 21.
More information about COVID-19 data in Georgia can be found on DPH’s COVID-19 status website.
This story was originally published October 22, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
