United States: Soldiers guarding the Capitol have covid – US and Canada – International

Crowded like canned sardines and with a burst of covid-19 that affects at least a hundred soldiers is how the thousands of members of the National Guard deployed at the United States Capitol, According to country media.

Three members of this body told the political media that at least one hundred members of the National Guard stationed in Washington DC after the January 6 assault on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump tested positive for coronavirus and some are quarantining in nearby hotels.

So far, the National Guard has not reported the number of cases, although there are fears that the covid-19 has spread very quickly among the 25,000 troops that have been deployed in the center of the capital.

(Besides: Trump’s political trial will begin the week of February 8th).

After the investiture on Wednesday of Joe Biden as president, more than 10,000 troops are still on duty, while another 15,000 are expected to return to their homes in the coming days, Defense Department officials said Thursday.

According to Politico, the National Guard has had difficulty implementing a plan to test soldiers, Some of whom have had to be tested for the disease on their own.

the newspaper The Washington Post points out this Friday that hundreds of members of the National Guard deployed at the Capitol they spent Thursday night sleeping on the floor in garages outside Congress.

After the scandal caused by the photos spread by the media of the soldiers sleeping on the concrete of a parking lot, it has been allowed this Friday that they can rest again inside the buildings of the Capitol complex.

(Read here: The Senate confirms Austin as the first Afro chief of the Pentagon).

Two uniformed men pointed to the Publication that on Thursday afternoon they were relocated without explanation in a garage where there was barely room, vehicles were passing nearby, they were exposed to smoke and there were few bathrooms. Before Thursday, the troops could spend their time relaxing inside the Capitol.

However, they had to fix how they could sleeping on the concrete floor or carpets inside these facilities, Or even on indoor tennis courts nearby.

Members of the National Guard have hotel rooms, but soldiers are usually on duty for a day or two, with shifts of a few hours and cannot easily return to their accommodations, many of which are outside the District of Columbia, in the neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland.

Photographs of soldiers piled up in parking lots have drawn criticism from lawmakers themselves. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to assert this Friday that he had spoken with Capitol security officials so that “this will not happen again.”

“I promise every member of the National Guard that it will not happen again,” Schumer said in the chamber. In fact, the House Rules Committee is investigating the relocation of soldiers to parking lots for their rest periods, although most of all they want to find out if the proper precautions were taken in the face of covid-19, Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, the highest-ranking Republican on that committee, revealed to Politician.

(Besides: Republicans are proposing to delay Trump’s political trial until February).

After the investiture of Biden, the challenge now is the return of all these troops to the states that sent reinforcements to Washington DC.

Some members of the National Guard, such as members of the Wisconsin National Air Guard, were offered the option to receive the first dose of the covid-19 vaccine before being deployed in Washington, while some received the serum last week and others will be given the first dose this Friday. Even so, this body does not yet have a standardized plan to vaccinate all cash returning home.

EFE

You may be interested

– What is the immigration project presented by Biden?

– Climate change, a challenge in which Biden needs more than proposals

– One by one: the first key steps of President Joe Biden