How US Naval Hospital Okinawa is finding and stopping the spread of COVID-19 on Okinawa

Photo By Sgt. Hannah Hall | U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Stefani Mochisaki, the officer in charge of the COVID response cell for U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa, stands for a photo inside the COVID response cell office at Camp Foster, Okinawa, Japan, July 24, 2020. "For a disease outbreak such as COVID-19 it is really important to change the curve related to the number of cases within our community," Said Mochisaki. "How you do that is by good contact tracing, identifying those individuals with close contact to a positive case, and then they support our community by going under a quarantine to mitigate further spread to others. Our job is really important because we change the outcome of this outbreak and how far it spreads throughout our community." (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Hannah Hall)  

OKINAWA, JAPAN

07.24.2020

Story by Lance Cpl. Hannah Hall 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

CAMP BUTLER, Okinawa- U.S. Navy health professionals and Marines have been working around the clock to effectively trace and stop the spread of COVID-19 here, keeping service members ready to support the United States’ allies and partners throughout the Indo-Pacific.

U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa has taken the lead on contact tracing with support from the Joint Service COVID-19 Response Cell. The JCRC was established to provide a central hub of COVID-19 information for the joint force on Okinawa. Contact tracing is the process of identifying people who may have come into close contact with an infected person.

“As you know, we have two clusters of the virus on Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and Camp Hansen. However, these have been largely confined within those specific base populations," said Motoko Bennett, the public health specialist liaison with U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa. “That is due to the hard work and collaboration between military and Okinawa public health officials through intense training, contact tracing, and development of public health policies.”

Contact tracing has played a large role in keeping the COVID-19 positive cases strictly within the groups already identified, and along with current Marine Forces Japan policies and close coordination with local health officials, has enabled commands to find and properly quarantine those infected.

“Our current contact tracing efforts have been incredibly effective,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Alexander Huynh, the contact tracing team lead for U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa. “What this virus needs to spread, more than anything else, is close contact between people. When we can quickly move confirmed cases into isolation and their close contacts into quarantine, the disease cannot spread to the general population. That is how you extinguish an outbreak. By doing this, we have confined the current outbreak to localized clusters, keeping the Marines healthy and in the fight.”

While the hospital takes the lead on contact tracing, the JCRC supports the naval hospital by finding key information; such as, phone numbers, points of contact, maps of bases, etc., and then relaying their key findings to commanders. The contact tracing is conducted by medical professionals, which is important for privacy reasons.

Throughout the pandemic, U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa has coordinated closely with Okinawa Prefectural Government health officials to fight the spread of the virus and contain the cases already on island. That strong relationship has been vital in the battle against COVID-19.

“Keeping the information about infectious disease situations transparent to each other enables us to predict the trajectory of the infection expansion, and increase our readiness. We will work to keep expanding this effort,” said Bennett. “Both the U.S. military and OPG health officials acknowledge that we have to combat the pandemic together as a human-kind team.”

For any COVID questions or concerns please visit: https://www.iiimef.marines.mil/Coronavirus/
or Call: On base: 646-9691 or Cell: 098-971-9691.

• Date Taken: 07.24.2020
• Date Posted: 07.24.2020 03:35
• Story ID: 374513
• Location: OKINAWA, JP