East Granby Coronavirus Update: National Guardsman Tests Positive

MIDDLETOWN, CT — Two members of the Connecticut National Guard have tested positive for the new coronavirus, officials announced this week. An airman assigned to the 103rd Airlift Wing in East Granby tested positive March 27 and a soldier assigned to Joint Force Headquarters, who works in Middletown, tested positive for COVID-19 on March 28, according to officials. These are the first confirmed cases of the COVID-19 in the Connecticut National Guard.

The first person is a man, between 20 to 30 years old who has been hospitalized. The second is a woman, between 40 to 50 years old, who is recovering while self-monitoring symptoms at home, according to officials.

The airman is a traditional Guardsman who trains one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. He has not been on base at Bradley Air National Guard since March 8, officials said. The soldier is an Active Guard/Reserve member who works full-time for the Connecticut National Guard and was last in a military facility on March 19.

“The Connecticut Military Department continues to monitor the situation and known contacts in their work areas,” officials wrote in a news release. “We have conducted appropriate deep cleaning of their work areas and have implemented aggressive force health protection measures to protect our Soldiers, Airmen, Civilians, and Families.

“Additionally, for the first time the Connecticut Military Department has authorized ‘Virtual Drill’ for traditional members to continue receive relevant training via distance learning to protect the majority of the force who are not actively assigned to COVID-19 response missions.”

Officials said that due to “operational security considerations further release of the number of confirmed or suspected cases may not be appropriate for disclosure.”