Fifty-seven Arkansas National Guardsmen have tested positive for covid-19 in the past week during a training exercise at Fort Polk in Louisiana.
Soldiers from the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based out of Camp Robinson, traveled to the U.S. Army base near Leesville, La., for a combat readiness training exercise.
In addition to the 57 who tested positive, another 64 soldiers were put in quarantine. None of the soldiers have been hospitalized, Arkansas National Guard officials said Tuesday.
Like most of the state, most of the soldiers in the Arkansas National Guard are not vaccinated. An estimated 30% to 35% of guardsmen have gotten vaccinations, officials said.
While the military can't require personnel to get a covid-19 vaccination, it is encouraging people to get inoculated against the illness.
The recent positive tests come as covid-19 case counts are rising dramatically in Arkansas, Louisiana and much of the country. Relatively few soldiers have tested positive at Fort Polk -- 57 out of roughly 3,000 from the Arkansas National Guard. Most remain unvaccinated.
[CORONAVIRUS: Click here for our complete coverage » arkansasonline.com/coronavirus]
Unvaccinated guardsmen have been tested three times since they arrived at the base for training. Soldiers who have been vaccinated are tested only if they show symptoms, officials said.
Like Arkansas, Louisiana has been a covid-19 hot spot as of late with the delta variant infecting mostly the unvaccinated. In Vernon Parish, where Fort Polk is located, 11 people have tested positive between July 8-14, according to Dr. David Holcombe, a regional health administrator for the Louisiana Department of Health.
While Vernon Parish has reported a relatively low number of covid-19 cases, solid numbers from the area are hard to come by because the U.S. Army doesn't send its covid-19 data to the state.
With about one-third of the people in Vernon Parish having close ties to the military, either as active-duty servicemen, civilian staff members or as spouses, the reported numbers from the parish may not reflect accurately how many active cases there are, Holcombe said.