In the nearly three months since the Department of Defense began reporting its COVID-19 numbers, the Space Force managed to avoid a spot on the scoreboard -- until this week.
With just six positive COVID-19 cases reported as of Monday morning, the Space Force has a ways to go before it will show any real position on the field of DoD COVID-19 infection rates. However, these are not the first Space Force COVID-19 cases -- at the end of March, Space Force reported that three of its service members in Colorado tested positive for the virus. In response to those three initial cases, Space Force took similar prevention measures to those implemented by other branches -- temperature screening, movement restrictions and disinfection practices.
Space Force has been contributing to the DoD fight against COVID-19 in its own ways since the beginning of the pandemic -- providing communications support to the Navy's hospital ships and launching rockets dedicated to the victims of COVID-19. In recent months, Space Force has also been working to grow its personnel force as well as secure the copyrights for its name from Netflix.
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In total, as of Monday morning, the DoD reported 14,073 positive cases of COVID-19 across the entire force. As has been true since the very early days of reporting, the vast majority of those positive cases are among active-duty troops, including three deaths.
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Reach Elizabeth Howe on Twitter @ECBHowe.
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