Special report: Prevalence of selected underlying health conditions among active component Army service members with coronavirus disease 2019, 11 February-6 April 2020.

Kebisek, Julianna; Forrest, Lanna J; Maule, Alexis L; Steelman, Ryan A; Ambrose, John F

The novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2) that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is exhibiting widespread community transmission throughout most of the world. Previous reports have evaluated the risk of serious illness in civilians diagnosed with COVID-19; however, similar reports have not been compiled for the Army active component (AC) population. COVID-19 has been a reportable condition for the Department of Defense since 5 February 2020, and, as of the morning of 6 April, a total of 873 cases were reported to the Disease Reporting System internet from Army installations. Of these cases, a total of 219 (25.1%) were identified as Army AC service members. The majority of these cases did not require hospitalization (n=207; 94.5%). The most common comorbidities present in nonhospitalized cases included other chronic illnesses (43.5%), neurologic disorders (24.6%), and obesity (21.7%). Overall, 12 cases (5.5%) required hospitalization. Hospitalized cases had a history of obesity (58.3%), neurologic disorder (50.0%), other chronic illnesses (41.7%), and hypertension (25.0%). No comorbidities were present among 27.1% (n=56) of nonhospitalized cases and 25.0% (n=3) of hospitalized cases.