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Customers wait to enter the commissary at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, Friday, March 27, 2020. Escalated health protection measures put limits on the number of people who can be inside the store at one time.

Customers wait to enter the commissary at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, Friday, March 27, 2020. Escalated health protection measures put limits on the number of people who can be inside the store at one time. (Matthew Keeler/Stars and Stripes)

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SEOUL, South Korea - An American contractor tested positive for coronavirus Sunday on Camp Humphreys, the military said, in the 19th case for U.S. Forces Korea.

It was the ninth infection reported by Camp Humphreys as it surpassed the Army garrison in Daegu with the most cases.

The contractor last visited Camp Humphreys on Wednesday when he was directed by his leadership into self-quarantine at his off-post residence because he had been in direct contact with another infected person, USFK said.

U.S. and South Korean authorities determined that contact tracing and thorough cleaning weren’t necessary because he had been isolated since Wednesday, according to the press release.

All but one of the Camp Humphreys infections occurred after another contractor who worked at Eighth Army headquarters tested positive on March 24.

USAG Daegu, meanwhile, had its last case on March 10, raising its total to eight since South Korea’s outbreak began in the southeastern city that surrounds it on Feb. 20.

Two American contractors working at Osan Air Base also were infected this weekend in that installation’s first cases.

The U.S. military has sharply restricted access to bases and ordered most people on Humphreys and Osan to stay home as much as possible as it tries to prevent the further spread of the virus.

Only two soldiers have tested positive in South Korea. The others were military dependents, contractors and South Korean employees.

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