Senators urge Pentagon to test all service members, families for coronavirus

[Tony]

WASHINGTON – Two U.S. senators are urging the Defense Department to test all service members and their families for the coronavirus in order to contain outbreaks in the military and limit the threat to national security.

Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., called on the Pentagon to use rapid antigen tests on all service members, their families, civilian employees and contractors to find asymptomatic carriers of the virus. In the past week, the department set a record for the highest number of new cases in one day among service members and reported an outbreak on a guided missile destroyer based out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.