US Military Task Force Prepares To Secure Capital amid Coronavirus Crisis

By Staff, Agencies

US government officials in Washington, DC are preparing for a coronavirus epidemic in the capital similar to New York, one that could potentially cripple the government, according to US media reports.

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser on Friday ordered a one-month extension of the state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic, as cases in the region grow at a rapid pace.

There were over 20,000 patients with confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the capital and the neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland as of Thursday evening, a figure that has doubled in just one week, according to The Washington Post.

A secretive military task force charged with securing Washington was activated on March 16 to deal with the public health crisis, the Newsweek said in a report on Thursday.

The task force is charged with facilitating continuity of government, particularly moving civil and military leaders to secret locations were the order given to evacuate the city.

"No one wants to talk evacuation, especially when there's nowhere to go," an unnamed senior military officer told Newsweek.

The United States, with the world’s third-largest population, has now suffered the greatest number of reported fatalities from the coronavirus, ahead of Italy and Spain.

More than 670,000 people in the US have been infected with the coronavirus and over 33,000 have died as of Friday morning, according to a Reuters tally.