Updated Mar 8, 2020 - Health

U.S. Marine first in Virginia to test positive for coronavirus

Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Photo: Tex Jobe/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/Wikimedia Commons

A U.S. Marine in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, has become the first person in the state to contract the novel coronavirus, Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Rath Hoffman said in a statement via Twitter on Saturday evening.

The big picture: The Marine was being treated at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital after recently returning from overseas, where he was on official business, Hoffman said. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the White House have been briefed on the case. On Friday, a U.S. Navy sailor stationed in Naples, Italy, became the first in Europe to test positive for the virus. An American soldier stationed in South Korea was quarantined on Feb. 25 after testing positive for COVID-19.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.

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"I stood up for that": Pope Francis voices support for same-sex civil unions

Pope Francis at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Photo: Vatican Pool - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

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Why it matters: The pope’s remarks represent a break from the position of the Roman Catholic Church, which has long taught that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered" and contrary to natural law.

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Countries waiting to see if Trump wins before moving on Israel normalization

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Poll: 92% of battleground state voters are "extremely motivated to vote"

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91% of likely voters nationally say they are "extremely motivated to vote," including 92% in battleground states Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to a Change Research/CNBC Poll.

Why it matters: The 2020 election could see record-breaking levels of voter turnout. Voters last week cast ballots at nearly five times the rate they did at this point in the 2016 election, per the U.S. Elections Project. Over 39 million ballots have been cast in early voting states as of Wednesday.

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