Joint Chiefs Civilian Employee Confirmed with COVID-19... Epidemiological Investigation Underway

Joint Chiefs of Staff Headquarters Building

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter]The Joint Chiefs of Staff has reported its first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

According to military officials on the 16th, one civilian employee belonging to the Joint Chiefs of Staff located within the Ministry of National Defense compound in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, tested positive for COVID-19.

Accordingly, the Ministry of National Defense is conducting an epidemiological investigation on the confirmed case and has set up a temporary testing site at key locations within the Ministry of National Defense compound this morning to test contacts and others. This is the first confirmed case within the Ministry of National Defense compound since last November, when a cluster infection occurred at the directly controlled unit, the Armed Forces Welfare Service.

With the first COVID-19 case emerging at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, attention is focused on how this might affect the upcoming South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises scheduled for the second week of next month. The South Korean and U.S. military authorities have agreed to conduct the Combined Command Post Exercise (CPX) in the second week of March and are discussing specific schedules and details. The exercise, divided into two parts, is expected to last about nine days and will be conducted via computer simulation, as in previous years.

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