The Department of Defense on Wednesday revealed 101,236 service members of the U.S. Armed Forces have fallen victim to COVID-19.
The department said there were 1,608 new cases among troops over the past two days. It also reported 154,620 people affiliated, including service personnel, had tested positive for the coronavirus. Of this 92,023 have recovered.
However, 165 service members and people affiliated have died. The deaths include 14 service members, 103 civil servants, 39 contractors and nine family members.
Total cases account for 0.6% of the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. - which was 18.2 million as of Tuesday. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show 196,000 new cases that same day, as well as 1.5 million cases over the last seven days.
CDC recorded 322,000 deaths since the pandemic began. There were some 3,200 more deaths Tuesday.
The defense department noted infection rates across the U.S. military's six armed services, including the Reserve components, have remained relatively uniform. The U.S. Marine Corps has the highest ratio of personnel infected for its population, a percentage that comes to 5.5%.
Many of the Marines' confirmed cases have occurred in Okinawa, where there have been 27 confirmed coronavirus cases so far this month.
The U.S. Army reports over 5.3% of its personnel have tested positive since the start of the pandemic. The Navy's infection rate stands at 5.1% while that of the Air Force comes to 4.7%. Some 2.8% of Air and Army National Guard personnel have been infected, the department said.
It said hospitalizations increased 20% since the beginning of November. It said 886 military personnel were in hospital as of Wednesday.
It is vaccinating priority groups, including health care providers and support workers, emergency services and public safety personnel.
It started vaccinating its clinicians and front line safety and security personnel the week of Dec. 14. These inoculations took place in 13 military communities with 44,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Shipments of a second vaccine, made by Moderna, Inc. began arriving this week.
"The vaccine is safe, effective and a critical addition to current public health measures," said Defense Health Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Place.
"It helps us protect our health, our families, our communities, and significantly decrease the public health risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic."
Place said the department's policy is that vaccinations "will be voluntary for everyone" as long as they're administered under an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.
