Third US service member killed by coronavirus

A third U.S. service member has died from the coronavirus, according to Pentagon figures released Tuesday.

The death was included in the Pentagon’s coronavirus fact sheet issued each business day, which includes aggregate numbers of COVID-19 cases.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said at a briefing later Tuesday the service member was an Army reservist from Wisconsin, adding he does not believe the soldier “was on any COVID-related orders.”

The unidentified soldier joins Navy Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr. and Army Capt. Douglas Linn Hickock as service members killed by COVID-19.

Thacker, a 41-year-old aviation ordnanceman, was one of more than 1,000 sailors from the USS Theodore Roosevelt who contracted the virus. He remains the only fatality from the Roosevelt outbreak, which erupted into a political firestorm after the ship’s former commander wrote a letter pleading for help with the outbreak.

Hickock, the first service member to die from the virus, was a New Jersey National Guardsman and a physician’s assistant. 

In total, the Pentagon reported 35 coronavirus deaths connected to the department as of Tuesday morning. The total includes two more civilian deaths since the last report Friday, bringing the total number of Pentagon civilians killed to 18.

A total of 6,118 service members have had the virus, according to the figures, including 165 who have been hospitalized and 3,460 who have recovered.

Pentagon-wide, there have been 9,173 coronavirus cases, according to the fact sheet.

Updated at 4:16 p.m.