COLUMBIA, S.C. — Soldiers on Fort Jackson can be seen subbing elbow or foot bumps for handshakes in light of the coronavirus.
Commander of Fort Jackson Brig. Gen. Milford Beagle addressed the media Saturday about COVID-19 in relation to Ft. Jackson.
B.G. Beagle says that 50% of the United States Army comes through Fort. Jackson.
"That's a huge population that we have to be very mindful of with regard to the level of risk and minimizing the spread of any type of communicable disease on any given day," B.G. Beagle said.
Although there are no active, positive cases, B.G. Beagle did say that they had a soldier in training that they identified as a patient under investigation.
"Our particular soldier in training was tested- the test came back negative, therefore we have 0 positive cases," said B.G. Beagle.
B.G. Beagle broke down their already set plans for this kind of situation and what other steps they would take moving forward. Their key steps are prevention, detection and containment.
"I've placed orders-put out orders on the installation for things to get us in a better place with regard to prevention," B.G. Beagle said, "We have an order, we do not handshake on instillation. We do elbow bumps is one thing that has now been dictated in the order or we will do a foot tap. It doesn't look very military but it's going to help us with prevention and its going to help us fast-forward in terms of changing habits."
B.G. Beagle said they have not cancelled any family days or graduations and they have implemented screening questions at all points of entry. He also listed out a pathway management plan and their "prevention tiered system" that goes from a steady state-where they currently are- to full closure.
He says the general feeling on post is at a high confidence level in their protocols, very low panic, but still a sense of uncertainty.