This text was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Middle on Disaster Reporting.WASHINGTON — The Navy on Friday evening abruptly shut down the
This text was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Middle on Disaster Reporting.
WASHINGTON — The Navy on Friday evening abruptly shut down the church, faculties, fitness center and most locations the place folks congregate at its base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, returning to the strict restrictions it had imposed earlier within the coronavirus pandemic.
The bottom was “awaiting outcomes from checks despatched off web site,” a spokeswoman, Nikki L. Maxwell, stated Saturday evening. She declined to say what number of residents have been suspected of being contaminated by the coronavirus on the base of 6,000 residents. The navy usually declines to reveal an infection figures at particular websites however has made exceptions within the Pacific.
On Thursday, base officers closed the Bayview fine-dining restaurant within the officers’ membership complicated, citing “some key workers feeling beneath the climate,” though Ms. Maxwell stated these diseases have been unrelated to the virus. The following evening, the bottom well being division introduced that “as an additional precautionary measure,” it was imposing a safety stage of Charlie, which the navy defines as signifying the danger of “sustained group transmission” within the pandemic.
Base notices reminded residents to remain at dwelling and to name the hospital quite than go there “in the event you really feel sick, have a fever, cough or expertise any shortness of breath.”
By Saturday, base officers had closed the varsity for the sailors’ youngsters, gyms for jail guards and different residents, the church complicated, the barbershop, ball fields and swimming swimming pools and have been requiring eating places to supply solely takeout. The commissary remained open, with buyers restricted in quantity.
The bottom is a 45-square-mile outpost in southeast Cuba, with a small group hospital and restricted well being care amenities. Whereas the navy has stated the bottom has some coronavirus rapid-testing capability, Guantánamo has persistently despatched samples to the mainland United States for extra complete testing.
The restrictions recalled these in March, the earliest months of the pandemic, when the navy imposed strict limitations after a sailor getting back from depart turned sick, examined constructive for the virus and was put beneath quarantine. Quickly after, officers adopted a coverage of not disclosing the variety of circumstances of the virus on the bottom, if any.
Diving within the bay, a favourite pastime on lengthy vacation weekends such because the one previous Columbus Day, which is noticed on Monday, was additionally canceled, as was a 5-kilometer run on Saturday morning celebrating the 244th birthday of the U.S. Navy, a group custom.
“I perceive this can be a difficult scenario for everybody right here,” significantly given the vacation weekend, the bottom commander, Capt. John A. Fischer of the Navy stated in an open letter to residents Saturday evening. “Please use this off-duty time to relaxation and recharge safely.”
A whole lot of troops and Navy households have arrived on the base all through the pandemic and have spent their first two weeks in quarantine as a protecting measure.
Many of the estimated 240 college students on the bottom had returned to the classroom final month for the primary time since early spring. Over the weekend, the varsity instructed households it will revert to distant studying, with elementary lessons delayed till Wednesday.
The pandemic has prompted the cancellation of what was anticipated to be a busy 12 months of warfare crimes proceedings at Guantánamo. The final listening to was held in late February, partly due to the complication of making an attempt to handle the quarantining of a planeload of courtroom personnel who commute from throughout the US to every listening to. A small workforce from the Workplace of Army Commissions is predicted to journey there Tuesday.
No protection legal professionals have visited the 40 wartime prisoners in the course of the pandemic, though some have communicated by military-supervised video or phone calls. The pandemic has additionally led the Worldwide Crimson Cross to cancel two often scheduled quarterly visits, contributing to the isolation of the outpost.