A California National Guardsman has died of COVID-19 -- the sixth service member to die from the coronavirus so far.
The new death was added to the Department of Defense's coronavirus data charts on Monday with no additional information. While the California National Guard confirmed that the new COVID-19 fatality was a member of the California National Guard, no further details were offered to protect the family's privacy.
After months of reporting no additional COVID-19 deaths among service members, the DoD has reported three in August alone.
Army Reserve Medical Command Master Sgt. Brian Tolliver, 46, died August 17 after a five-week fight with COVID-19 at the Largo Medical Center in Largo, Florida. Spc. Curtis Fort, 61, an Army reservist from Virginia was added to the COVID-19 deaths chart on August 3.
Of the six total service members killed by the virus, five 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.
Overall, after holding steady for the first few months of the pandemic, DoD COVID-19 deaths almost doubled in the month of July.
As of Monday, the DoD had reported 52,455 cases of COVID-19. The vast majority of these cases -- as has been the case since the very beginning of the pandemic -- are among service members. More than 36,000 service members from every branch have been confirmed as COVID-19 positive.
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