Though South Korea is having it highest daily infection numbers yet, it is important to keep perspective. For a country of 51 million people these numbers are basically the equivalent of a large American city:
South Korea reported more than 1,100 daily new coronavirus cases on Saturday, adding pressure on authorities to tighten social distancing rules to flatten the curve of infections.
The country reported 1,132 more COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, including 1,104 local infections, putting the total caseload at 55,902, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The tally is slightly lower than Friday’s new record high of 1,241. The death toll rose by 20 to 793, with the fatality rate at 1.42 percent.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It looks like Santa brought the coronavirus vaccine for some U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan:
U.S. Forces Korea will start administering the Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus to frontline health care workers and first responders “over the next few days,” the USFK commander, Gen. Robert Abrams, announced Tuesday.
In a message on the USFK website, Abrams said the command would receive “additional shipments of the vaccine to inoculate all USFK-affiliated community members as production and distribution increases.”
He did not specify a timeline for wider distribution of the vaccine. “I ask that our community remains patient and flexible as the additional shipments arrive,” Abrams wrote. (…….)
In Japan, the same vaccine is expected to arrive, destined for six U.S. bases with medical treatment facilities, “within the next 24-48 hours,” Chief Master Sgt. Rick Winegardner Jr., senior enlisted leader of U.S. Forces Japan, said on American Forces Network Radio on Wednesday.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
It is amazing that Army leadership did not foresee how controversial a fitness test that puts females at a great disadvantage would be with Congress:
The defense bill halts the implementation of the Army Combat Fitness Test until a study is complete to assess the test’s impact on recruitment and retention. The study, which has to be conducted by an entity independent of the Pentagon, also has to investigate whether troops in different environments where outdoor activity is hindered are at a disadvantage.
The test has already been on hold. Army leaders have said units can conduct the test now, but will not count on a soldier’s record until 2022. This is to give troops more time to train for the test and as a reaction to the pandemic, which has restricted gym access across the country.
The ACFT replaces the decades-old fitness test with more events aimed to gauge a soldier’s physical fitness for combat. This includes CrossFit-style exercise events, hand release pushups, and leg tucks. The test retains the timed two-mile run.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
The mobile test centers set up around Seoul to help conduct random coronavirus testing is showing how many people have the virus without knowing it:
Temporary coronavirus testing centers now in operation throughout the greater Seoul area have contributed greatly to detecting hidden infections, officials said Thursday, announcing as many as 150 cases were confirmed through their testing the previous day alone.
According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters, 58,091 people were tested by the makeshift screening facilities Wednesday and 150 of them were diagnosed with COVID-19.
Patients detected this way accounted for 15.7 percent of all new daily COVID-19 cases reported by Seoul and neighboring Gyeonggi Province and Incheon on the day, the agency noted.
As a result, the cumulative number of coronavirus cases detected by about 150 temporary testing centers, which began operations on Dec. 14 for three weeks, rose to 904, it said.
Earlier this week, the Seoul city government said 1 in 4 new daily COVID-19 cases in the capital were confirmed through the street testing.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Christmas 2020 is finally here which means it is time to share Chickenhead’s classic carol, Twas the Night Before Christmas on the DMZ.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the DMZ, the darkness was stirred by a lone Christmas tree.
Love gifts were hung from the balloons with care, in hopes they’d pass north through the cold winter air.
The soldiers were nestled all snug in their bunks, while visions of peaceful reunification gave them goose bumps.
With a ho in her hooker boots, and I in the buff, I had just bent her over to treat her ass good and rough.
When out on the lawn arose loud banging and clicking, I sprang from my bed to see whose ass needed kicking.
Away to the window I flew all in fear, knocked over my soju and two bottles of beer.
The moon on the snow and the flares in the sky, gave the luster of mid-day so I could not deny.
When, what to my wondering eyes should I see, but a horde of Nork soldiers, tanks and artillery.
With pictures of Dear Leader and muzzle flashes aglow, I wished for more combat training instead of briefings from EO.
They yelled threats and commands, I knew I was funked. My Tagalog was great but my Korean skills sucked.
“Now, Kim! Now, Lee! Now, Park and Gong! On, Choi! On Kwak! On, Nam and Song!
To the top of the hill! To the top of the wall! Now kill the white devils, kill them all!”
And they hit the main gate the first time they tried, where napping KATUSAs with empty guns died.
They attacked the wall of the BX and opened a chasm, and looted the place, a black market orgasm.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard down the hall, shooting and stabbing and harsh Han Gook Mal.
As I searched for a weapon and looked all around, an evil Nork soldier came in with a bound.
He was dressed all in rags, from his head to his foot, and his sockless toes could be seen through his boot.
A smoking AK he had flung on his back, and I picked up my XBox to give him a whack.
His eyes – how they twinkled! Narrow and scarry! But he looked like a teen who still had his cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up in rage, and though I hadn’t saved my game, I had to engage.
A rusty old knife, he held in his teeth, as with hunger abound, he’d likely eaten the sheath.
He had a big square head and lacked any belly, while I only passed my tape test on a diet of petroleum jelly.
I put down my XBox and said, “Here’s the deal.” “If you don’t kill me, I’ll cook you a meal.”
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his plate, and gobbled Hamburger Helper like a trailer park date.
To get him to leave, I thought of more ploys, “Why don’t you take my hot juicy back to your boys?”
He sprang out the door with my juicy in tow, and the last that I saw, they’d formed a line in the snow.
I hid under my bed with my XBox on, And played Medal of Honor ’till the airstrike got here from Guam.
This classic just never gets old. I hope everyone has a great Christmas!
