A fourth service member has died due to complications related to COVID-19 -- the first service member death reported by the Pentagon since May 26.
The additional death was not announced by the Department of Defense beyond being included in the "DoD Cumulative Total" deaths column on the Pentagon's coronavirus resource website. Upon inquiry, DoD identified the additional death as Spc. Curtis Fort, 61, an Army reservist from Virginia according to Lt. Col. Simon Flake, a spokesman for the Army Reserve.
After holding reasonably steady for the first few months of the pandemic, DoD COVID-19 deaths almost doubled in the month of July.
While still boasting a significantly lower fatality rate than the general population, the civilian DoD population reported 24 additional deaths in the past month.
Of the four total service members killed by the virus, three were National Guard or Reserve component troops. The one active-duty service member was a sailor aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt which garnered national media attention for its outbreak for weeks.
Fort was assigned to a cadet summer training operation in Salem, Va. According to a GoFundMe page started for Fort's funeral, he was also a pastor, a husband, and a father of five children.
As of Wednesday morning, the DoD reported a total of 42,249 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The United States has reported 4.7 million in total.
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