A second Marine at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar tested positive for COVID-19, the base announced in a statement Saturday.
Marine Capt. Matthew Gregory, a Miramar spokesman, said Saturday that the Marine was not a known contact of the first presumptive positive case on the base and does not have a recent history of travel to affected regions, indicating possible community transmission of the coronavirus among on the base.
Neither Marine was involved in the ongoing quarantine of cruise ship passengers on the station. However, Gregory said, the Marine Corps’ experience with using base facilities as a quarantine site for evacuees has helped them deal with the virus as is spreads among personnel.
“A lot of the same procedures we’ve learned from Health and Human Services are going to be implemented,” he said.
Gregory said the base has cleared out a barracks and will house affected service members there in isolation.
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