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WASHINGTON: Between 150 and 200 National Guardsmen deployed to Washington, DC, to provide security during President Joe Biden’s inauguration, have tested positive for the coronavirus, a US official said Friday (January 22).
The US government imposed unprecedented security measures on the city following the deadly Jan.6 attack on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, including fences topped with barbed wire and checkpoints controlled by the National Guard.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the number of National Guard personnel who tested positive could increase, but it was still a small fraction of the more than 25,000 troops deployed to the city in recent days.
READ: Biden orders masks and quarantine for passengers flying to US in ‘wartime’ offensive on COVID-19
The United States reported more than 4,000 daily deaths from COVID-19 for the second day in a row, according to a Reuters analysis of public health data, bringing the cumulative number of American lives lost to nearly 410,000.
The National Guard said in a statement that it would not discuss the coronavirus cases, but that staff were following the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including temperature checks when they left their home state and arrived at the city, along with a screening questionnaire.
READ: Fauci says COVID-19 infections could be stabilizing
The military has said arrangements are being made for thousands of soldiers to return home and that about 15,000 are expected to leave Washington in the next five to 10 days.
About 7,000 members of the National Guard are expected to remain at least until the end of the month, authorities said.
Around 5,000 soldiers are expected to remain through mid-March, but that number and time frame could change.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they had administered 19,107,959 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 39,892,400 doses.
The vaccine dose count is for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, the agency said.
The agency said 16,243,093 people had received one or more doses, while 2,756,953 people received the second dose as of Friday.
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