Senior Pentagon official tests positive for Covid

All U.S. officials have been tested after the Lithuanian embassy notified the Pentagon on Thursday that Karoblis had tested positive, according to Pentagon chief spokesman Jonathan Hoffman. Tata has tested positive on two successive tests. None of the other officials are in quarantine.

Hoffman said the Pentagon was continuing to research the contracts of DoD personnel who had close contact with the Lithuanian or Tata delegation.

Miller and the duty secretaries are not quarantined “based on the testing and mitigation measures that were in place during the Lithuanian delegation’s visit and guidance from the CDC,” Hoffman said.

“We will continue to assess the conditions, take appropriate preventive measures and undertake additional testing as needed,” he said.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has had no contact with Karoblis or Tata and recently tested negative, according to his spokesman Colonel David Butler.

Bloomberg first reported the news that Tata had tested positive.

This marks the second instance of Covid-19 in the top ranks of the Pentagon. All but one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along with two other four-star officers, were forced into quarantine in October after meeting in the Pentagon’s secure conference room with the Vice-Commander of the Guard Coastal Adm. Charles Ray, who tested positive for the virus. The Deputy Commander of the Navy, General Gary Thomas, also tested positive later.

Miller and Tata temporarily assumed two of the Pentagon’s most important civilian functions last week after President Donald Trump sacked former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the White House ousted James Anderson, the former chief of acting politics.

Trump appointed Tata as the Pentagon’s political director in April, but his appointment was withdrawn this summer amid concerns over Islamophobic tweets and other offensive comments, including calling former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader. “. In August, Tata was installed as a temporary No. 2 in the policy store under Anderson.

Miller, a former Green Beret who has spent his career fighting terrorism, went from a mid-level office officer in the National Security Council to secretary of defense in less than a year.