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| ▲ This undated file photo shows South Korea's 4,400-ton Munmu the Great destroyer. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ A KC-330 military air tanker takes off from Gimhae airport in the southeastern port city of Busan on July 23, 2020, as South Korea planned to bring home nearly 300 citizens from coronavirus-hit Iraq, in this photo provided by the Air Force. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) Cheonghae unit-coronavirus
(LEAD) 61 more Cheonghae Unit members test positive for COVID-19
(ATTN: ADDS more details in paras 4, 7-14, photo)
By Oh Seok-min
SEOUL, July 18 (Yonhap) -- An additional 61 service members of South Korea's anti-piracy naval unit in waters off Africa have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total caseload on their destroyer to 68, officials said Sunday.
The figure is feared to rise further, as the test results of about 200 service members of the 300-strong Cheonghae Unit are expected to be available in the coming days.
"Until now, we've received the test results on 101 service members, and 68 tested positive, with 33 negative," an official of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
Currently, 15 people, including three infected sailors, are under treatment at local hospitals, and others with mild or no symptoms have been placed in isolation on their vessel, the Munmu the Great, the official said.
To bring back all the unit members home, the government is scheduled to fly two KC-330 Cygnus multi-role aerial tankers there later in the day, according to the defense ministry.
Their return will be about a month ahead of original schedule, which will mark the first early return of the contingent since the unit was first deployed in 2009. The troops are rotated every six months for an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's coast and around the Strait of Hormuz.
A replacement contingent is on its way after departing for Africa last month to take over the mission.
"Three of the patients require intensive care, but the medical staff judges that they still are able to be airlifted by the aerial tankers," the official said.
"We are also preparing for different options, including sending another aircraft equipped with advanced medical equipment. We are closely monitoring the situation," he added.
Contact tracing is under way, but the infections appeared to have begun after the vessel was docked at a nearby port for days late last month to load supplies.
One sailor showed symptoms of a cold on July 2, one day after the destroyer left the port. After a dozen others also later developed cold symptoms, samples from six people were sent to a nearby country for PCR tests, and they all tested positive, according to the officials.
None of the troops have been vaccinated, as they left South Korea in February just before the country began its inoculation campaign. They have also been kept in close proximity to each other aboard the ship for months.
The defense ministry said around 73 percent of some 1,300 troops on overseas missions have been fully vaccinated, including all members of the new batch of the Cheonghae unit.
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