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People check out a pair of warships docked at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Aug. 27, 2020.

People check out a pair of warships docked at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Aug. 27, 2020. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

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TOKYO — The largest U.S. naval installation in Japan reported two new coronavirus cases on Tuesday.

Yokosuka Naval Base, home south of Tokyo to the 7th Fleet, announced on Facebook that the two patients are recent arrivals to Japan and were tested sometime since Friday.

Most of the new infections within the U.S. military in Japan and South Korea are new arrivals or returning travelers.

“Traveling from the United States proves to be the largest vector” behind coronavirus cases at Yokosuka, according to the Facebook post. Further, it stated, “the infection rate within the Japanese community has only marginally improved.”

Travel to the United States is authorized for leave purposes, but “consider the risk before putting yourself and your family at risk,” the post said.

Yokosuka, hit hard by the coronavirus early in the year, was in a virtual lockdown for three months in spring. Tuesday, it reported eight active cases on base.

In Tokyo, where most U.S. personnel, including civilian employees and family members, are forbidden to travel, the metropolitan government reported 212 new cases on Tuesday, the first daily count in excess of 200 since Saturday, according to public broadcaster NHK.

The coronavirus maintains a stubborn, if statistically small grip on the world’s largest metropolis, bouncing between 59 and 270 new infections per day the past seven days.

The seven-day moving average, which has trended downward since Sept. 21, on Monday stood at 147 cases on average per day. It was as high as 346 cases average per day in August.

news@stripes.com

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