142 Fort Benning soldier trainees have coronavirus after 2nd test in 3 weeks, post says
More than 140 soldier trainees have tested positive for the coronavirus at Fort Benning, the Army Post said in a press release on Sunday.
During a two-day period, 640 trainees were tested by Martin Army Community Hospital officials and 142 tested positive.
The soldiers and trainees who tested positive for COVID-19 are contained within one training company in the One-Station Unit Training battallion within the 30th AG reception battalion, according to the release.
The 640 future soldiers were first tested for coronavirus when they arrived at Fort Benning, and only four tested positive, the Army post said in the release. Those four individuals were isolated for 14 days and recovered.
About a week after the 14-day isolation, another trainee displayed COVID-19 symptoms, and all of the trainees were tested again, according to the release. That’s when the additional 142 cases were discovered.
Affected individuals have been isolated or are in quarantine in accordance with the Center for Disease Control guidelines.
Fort Benning also sanitized all impacted buildings, common areas, dining facilities and training area within the unit, according to the release.
Nearly 47,000 people in Georgia have tested positive for coronavirus, and more than 2,000 have died.
