{"id":349236,"date":"2026-06-25T00:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/349236\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T00:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:34:09","slug":"flu-cases-rise-to-275-at-jbsa-lackland-us-rep-castro-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/349236\/","title":{"rendered":"Flu cases rise to 275 at JBSA-Lackland, US Rep. Castro says"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The number of influenza cases at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland is on the rise, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said in a news release Wednesday.<\/p>\n

At least 275 cases of influenza have been confirmed amid the outbreak, according to Castro.<\/p>\n

KSAT reported last Thursday there were more than 150 military recruits<\/a> who tested positive for the flu. The total has increased by nearly 73%.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last three weeks, the 37th Training Wing, in close coordination with the 59th Medical Wing, has been managing a localized influenza outbreak among trainees at Basic Military Training,\u201d an Air Force spokesperson said in a statement to KSAT last week.<\/p>\n

In April, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made vaccinations optional for all U.S. military personnel \u2014 both active duty and reserve. Previously, the vaccine had been mandatory.<\/p>\n

Since the outbreak, the services have already been given exceptions to Hegseth\u2019s policy according to Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, ABC News reported<\/a>. As part of those exceptions to the policy, the Army, Navy and Air Force are once again requiring flu shots for basic trainees, according to officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department remains committed to the health and readiness of our warfighters and civilian personnel,\u201d JBSA\u2019s statement to KSAT said.<\/p>\n

KSAT has reached out to JBSA-Lackland for additional information regarding their vaccination policy.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The number of influenza cases at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland is on the rise, U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[27009,584,41742,76057,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-349236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-air-force","tag-health","tag-joint-base-san-antonio","tag-lackland-air-force-base","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}