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A man wearing a mask as protection against the coronavirus has his tempertature checked, another pandemic precaution, in Yokosuka, Japan, March 19, 2021.

A man wearing a mask as protection against the coronavirus has his tempertature checked, another pandemic precaution, in Yokosuka, Japan, March 19, 2021. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

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TOKYO – Two U.S. military bases in Japan announced six new coronavirus cases as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, while installations in South Korea had no patients to report.

Yokosuka Naval Base, 35 miles south of Tokyo, had one person test positive after coming down with symptoms of COVID-19, the coronavirus respiratory disease, since Friday, according to a base Facebook post. Public health authorities are tracing that person’s contacts.

Yokosuka, home of the U.S. 7th Fleet, has two patients in its care.

Another five people tested positive at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, according to a base Facebook post. Four became ill with COVID-19 symptoms and isolated themselves, and the fifth turned up positive on a pre-travel test required before departing Japan for the United States. An unspecified number of close contacts were quarantined.

U.S. Forces Korea reported no new patients Tuesday. New case counts Monday and Tuesday declined slightly but held to week-long trends in both countries.

Japan reported 1,143 new coronavirus patients Monday, down from a four-day run in the 1,400s, according to the World Health Organization. Japan has reported that 456,781 people contracted the virus during the pandemic, so far, and 8,835 have died, as of Monday, when 23 people died, according to WHO.

Tokyo reported 337 people tested positive for the virus Tuesday, an increase of 150 people over the previous day’s report, according to public broadcaster NHK. However, Monday counts are typically the lowest of the week, according to data from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

South Korea reported 331 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Seoul accounted for 97 new patients and Gyeonggi province, where Osan Air Base and Camp Humphreys are located, accounted for 120.

One-day case numbers in South Korea ranged between 415 and 469 over the previous six days, according to WHO.

So far during the pandemic, 99,075 people in South Korea have contracted COVID-19 and 1,697 have died, according to WHO.

Stars and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report.

ditzler.joseph@stripes.com Twitter: @JosephDitzler

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Joseph Ditzler is a Marine Corps veteran and the Pacific editor for Stars and Stripes. He’s a native of Pennsylvania and has written for newspapers and websites in Alaska, California, Florida, New Mexico, Oregon and Pennsylvania. He studied journalism at Penn State and international relations at the University of Oklahoma.

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