61 more Cheonghae Unit members test positive for COVID-19

An additional 61 service members of South Korea's anti-piracy naval unit in waters off Africa have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total caseload on their destroyer to 68, officials said Sunday.

The figure is feared to rise further, as the results of virus tests on all of the around 300 members of the Cheonghae Unit are expected to be available in the coming days.

"Until now, we've received the test results on 101 service members, and 68 tested positive, with 33 negative," an official of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

To bring back all the unit members home, the government is scheduled to fly two KC-330 Cygnus multi-role aerial tankers there later in the day, the official added.

It will be the first team to abort its mission since the unit was established in 2009. The Korean troops are rotated every six months for an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's coast and around the Strait of Hormuz. (Yonhap)