Analysis / Covid-19

Covid-19 Response Update: April 16-April 23

Combating Covid-19 Series

This is CSIS’s weekly roundup of major updates on the military and the novel coronavirus since Friday, April 16. It explores what the military has done to combat Covid-19 and how the military has in turn been affected by the virus.

New Department of Defense (DoD) cases of Covid-19 decreased over the past week, with the 7-day average decreasing by 4 percent to 709 new cases as of April 23. This marks a return to declining incidence in DoD new cases after they increased last week. Deaths rose by 6 this past week, reaching 344 as of Friday, April 23. DoD has vaccinated a total of 2,668,620 individuals as of April 23. 

Major Updates

  • April 20: Army Colonel Anthony Bostick, Head of the Defense Logistics Agency’s operational planning team for vaccine operations, announced that the DLA expects to begin receiving 390,000 vaccine doses weekly, up from an average of 155,500 per week. This increase is expected to enable greater distribution to deployed personnel and their families.
  • April 20: The DoD began releasing individual service vaccination data on its Covid-19 spotlight page.
  • April 22: Military Times reports that servicemen represent roughly 28 percent of vaccine doses administered by DoD. Vaccination rates have been 10-15 percent higher overseas than in the United States, with a majority of servicemen and their families being vaccinated in Indo-Pacific Command and Central Command.

Military Cases of Covid-19

How DoD cases have been trending over time is broken down below, by new cases; total cases; active cases in the DoD; and across the military services.

Methodological note: 1) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday totals are divided across the intervening days and weekends since DoD Covid-19 updates are only released during the work week on a M-W-F basis. 2) Adjustments were made on April 9 and April 15 when new cases where negative. These days were totaled and divided by the previous day to account for the correction. 3) DoD appeared to change the way cases were reported between April 15-Aprilt 16. A resulting spike in cases on April 16 was divided over the two prior days to account for this methodological shift.

This weekly update is made possible by the International Security Program at CSIS.

(Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

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William Healzer, Adam Saxton and Mark Cancian, "Covid-19 Response Update: April 16-April 23," Center for Strategic and International Studies, April 23, 2021, last modified April 23, 2021, https://defense360.csis.org/covid-19-response-update-april-16-april-23/.