COVID-19 pandemic in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

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COVID-19 pandemic in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
Disease COVID-19
Virus strain SARS-CoV-2
Location Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
Arrival date24 March 2020
(3 years, 6 months, 2 weeks and 6 days)
Confirmed cases2
Recovered2
Deaths
0

The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the United States' Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in March 2020. [1] Since April 2020, the United States Department of Defense has directed bases to not publicize case statistics.

Contents

Timeline

March 24

On 24 March, the first case in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base was confirmed. [2] It was announced that day that a navy sailor tested positive for the virus. [1]

March 25

On March 25, the school [ which? ] at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base moved to distance learning in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. [3]

April 15

After initial precautions were introduced on March 24, Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay issued an updated series of procedures to prevent illness from spreading to any residents, stationed personnel, or detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Base. These rules included a mandatory quarantine of two weeks following arrival on the installation. [4]

May 2

Due to prohibitions on direct contact and travel due to the pandemic, lawyers and others plan to video-chat with the five defendants on trial in the United States v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed case, one of the trials related to the September 11 attacks. Several defendants, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ammar al-Baluchi, and Mustafa Ahmad al Hawsawi, retained lawyers considered at risk by the U.S. Department of Defense or were considered at-risk themselves, preventing direct communication. Regular quarterly visits are set to resume by August. [5]

May 28

On May 28 a group of 15 U.S. Senators, including prominent senators Bernie Sanders (I) and Elizabeth Warren (D), wrote a letter expressing their concern that there would be a significant outbreak of COVID-19 on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. [6]

Impact

On health care

The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has a small hospital on its grounds. The hospital has been administering temperature checks, and sending some samples to the U.S. government to test. The prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base are unable to enter the U.S. for healthcare, so the Pentagon sends out medical teams for serious treatments. The military has said that they have not tested any of the prisoners, because none of them met the CDC guidelines for testing. They have also refused to state how many have been tested, as to not "jeopardize operations." It is unclear whether or not there are any working ventilators at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. [6]

On at risk populations

The detainee population of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base ranges in age from mid-30s to 72 years old. Older prisoners with underlying health conditions like heart conditions and diabetes have been moved away from younger prisoners. [6]

On education

The school[ which? ] on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base moved to distance learning on March 25, and was the last Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) school to do so. Classes for students continue online through Google Classroom. [3]

It is unknown whether the 8 seniors at the school had been able to gather for their June 5 graduation. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guantanamo Bay Naval Base</span> Military base of the United States Navy

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, is a United States military base located on 45 square miles (117 km2) of land and water on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It has been permanently leased to the United States since 1903 as a coaling station and naval base, making it the oldest overseas U.S. naval base in the world. The lease was $2,000 in gold per year until 1934, when the payment was set to match the value in gold in dollars; in 1974, the yearly lease was set to $4,085.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp X-Ray</span> Temporary detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp

Camp X-Ray was a temporary detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of Joint Task Force 160 on board the United States Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. The first twenty detainees arrived at Guantanamo on 11 January 2002. It was named Camp X-Ray because various temporary camps used to house Cuban and Haitian migrants in the 80s and 90s on board the station were named using NATO phonetic alphabet. The legal status of detainees at the camp, as well as government processes for trying their cases, has been a significant source of controversy; several landmark cases have been determined by the United States Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walid bin Attash</span> Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee (born 1978)

Walid Muhammad Salih bin Mubarak bin Attash is a Yemeni prisoner held at the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camp under terrorism-related charges, and is suspected of playing a key role in the early stages of the 9/11 attacks. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has described him as a "scion of a terrorist family". American prosecutors at the Guantanamo military commissions allege that he helped in the preparation of the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings and the USS Cole bombing and acted as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden, gaining himself the reputation of an "errand boy". He is formally charged with selecting and helping to train several of the hijackers of the September 11 attacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohammed al-Qahtani</span> Saudi Arabian Guantanamo detainee

Mohammed Mani Ahmad al-Qahtani is a Saudi citizen who was detained as an al-Qaeda operative for 20 years in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba. Qahtani allegedly tried to enter the United States to take part in the September 11 attacks as the 20th hijacker and was due to be onboard United Airlines Flight 93 along with the four other hijackers. He was refused entry due to suspicions that he was trying to illegally immigrate. He was later captured in Afghanistan in the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joint Task Force Guantanamo</span> Military unit

Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) is a U.S. military joint task force based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on the southeastern end of the base. JTF-GTMO falls under US Southern Command. Since January 2002 the command has operated the Guantanamo Bay detention camps Camp X-Ray and its successors Camp Delta, Camp V, and Camp Echo, where detained prisoners are held who have been captured in the war in Afghanistan and elsewhere since the September 11, 2001 attacks. From the command's founding in 2002 to early 2022, the detainee population has been reduced from 779 to 37. As of October 21, 2022, the unit is under the command of U.S. Army Brigadier General Scott W. Hiipakka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah</span> Kuwaiti former Guantanamo Bay detainee (born 1977)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Wilner</span>

Thomas B. Wilner is the managing partner of Shearman & Sterling's International Trade and Global Relations Practice. Wilner has also represented the high-profile human rights cases of a dozen Kuwaiti citizens detained in the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guantanamo Bay detention camp</span> United States military prison in southeastern Cuba

The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison within the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Gitmo, on the coast of Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. As of March 2022, of the 780 people detained there since January 2002 when the military prison first opened after the September 11 attacks, 741 had been transferred elsewhere, 30 remained there, and 9 had died while in custody.

Saeed Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah Sarem Jarabh is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention for over fourteen years in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba. Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts estimate he was born in 1976 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saifullah Paracha</span> Pakistani Guantanamo detainee

Saifullah Abdullah Paracha is a citizen of Pakistan who was held, without any charge, in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba for over 18 years. He was released on October 29, 2022. As of 18 May 2021, Saifullah Paracha was approved for release by American authorities after his son Uzair Paracha's conviction was overturned in 2018 and the younger Paracha was repatriated to Pakistan in March 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shawki Awad Balzuhair</span>

Shawki Awad Balzuhair is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His detainee ID number is 838. The Department of Defense reports that Balzuhair was born on July 24, 1981, in Hadhramaut, Yemen.

Guled Hassan Duran is a citizen of Somalia who is held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantánamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba.

United States v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et al. is the trial of five alleged Al-Qaeda members for aiding the September 11, 2001 attacks. Charges were announced by Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann on February 11, 2008 at a press conference hosted by the Pentagon. The men charged are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ammar al-Baluchi, and Mustafa Ahmad al Hawsawi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guantanamo force feeding</span>

Detainees held in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps have initiated both individual and widespread hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay, and camp medical authorities have initiated force-feeding programs.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prisons</span> Impact of COVID-19

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 pandemic on naval ships</span> Ongoing COVID-19 viral pandemic on military ships

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References

  1. 1 2 Kheel, Rebecca (24 March 2020). "Navy sailor at Guantanamo tests positive for coronavirus". The Hill . Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  2. "Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Announces Positive COVID-19 Case". www.navy.mil. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Public Affairs. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Learning Continues for DOD School System Students Despite COVID-19 Res". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  4. "Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay (JTF-GTMO) Covid-19 Preventative Measures" (PDF). U.S. southern Command Guidance. Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay. 15 April 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 May 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  5. Rosenberg, Carole (2 May 2020). "9/11 Prisoners May Get Video Chats to Bridge the Coronavirus Divide". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Rosenberg, Carol (28 May 2020). "Senators Seek Answers on Coronavirus Protections at Guantánamo Bay". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 28 May 2020.