Senior Pentagon Official Anthony Tata Tests Positive For COVID-19

A senior civilian Pentagon official has tested positive for COVID-19 after meeting with Lithuanian defense minister Raimundas Karoblis last Friday, November 13.

According to a Pentagon statement, Tata will isolate at home for the next 14 days. It was further gathered that Karoblis also tested positive for COVID-19 and the Lithuanian Embassy told the Pentagon of his infection on Thursday November 18. 

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman;

“Mr. Tata was tested today and has tested positive for COVID-19 on two successive tests. He will isolate at home for the next 14 days in accordance with Center for Disease Control protocols.”

Hoffman who all of the U.S. officials were tested after the Lithuanian Embassy notified the Pentagon on Thursday that Karoblis had tested positive, further revealed that the Pentagon is continuing to conduct further contract tracing on DoD personnel who have had close contact with the Lithuanian delegation or Tata.

Karoblis also met with multiple senior Pentagon leaders, including acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, the secretaries of the Army and Air Force and the secretary of the Navy. Each of those officials have been tested since their meeting, Hoffman said. He did not say how those leaders had tested.

This is not the first time senior officials at the Pentagon have experienced a Coronavirus scare. A majority of the Joint Chiefs of Staff went into quarantine and self-isolation after the vice commandant of the Coast Guard tested positive for coronavirus following a meeting of the military’s top leaders.

The deputy commandant of the US Marine Corps subsequently tested positive for the Coronavirus. And the No. 2 officer in the Space Force also tested positive for Coronavirus after contracting it in a separate incident.