future. the request for assistance from the state department requested that the department of defense provide culturally appropriate food, water, bed, recreational activities and other services like transportation from the port of entry to the location of accommodations and some medical services as well. a team of military civilian and contract personnel are working closely with numerous agencies, government and nongovernment to ensure further requirements and additional capabilities are available for vulnerable afghans. in addition, the department of homeland security is working to conduct the screens and security vetting for all special immigrant visa applicants in the fastest way possible consistent with providing protection for vulnerable afghans that supported the united states. that process involves biometric and bio graphic screenings by
agencies to include counter terrorism and intelligence communities. what we re seeing is folks coming across cleared by the process, which i m comfortable with. with regards to covid, the afghans coming from the middle east into our locations that we have stood up are all being tested multiple times. we test them 100% upon arrival at each location. they re getting tests at dulles as well. in route they get tested. i ll give you numbers. we are seeing so far to date when i was at fort mccoy only three out of more than 1,300 had tested positive. when i went to fort bliss, one out of 1,200 tested positive for covid. i hope that helps. one out of 1,200. jen? hi, general. it s jennifer griffin with fox news. i want to go back to numbers.
that airport is opening today. additional sites are possible. here s a snapshot of the numbers. task force eagle in virginia has a capacity for 1,750. today task force eagle at fort lee has supported 1,647 afghan special immigrant visa applicants and their families. nearly half of whom have completed the process and moved on with the support of the department of state, nongovernmental, intergovernmental organizations. in fort bliss, they have a capacity of 5,000 and started receiving flights august 31. the base has supported 2,160 afghans, hard and soft strictures. final capacities expected to be at least 10,000. task force mccoy wisconsin has a
not american citizens or don t have passports to get out. so i m wondering if this is something that the state department is looking at addressing more broadly, at changing the visa requirements or citizenship requirements or the ability to allow more people, family, to come out so american citizens don t have to make a choice of their safety and leaving parents, children behind. let me make a couple broad points. number 1, the number of individuals with whom we ve been in contact that say that they don t wish to leave because they don t wish to leave extended family behind, it s relatively small. especially when you look at the universe of american citizens that we ve repatriated or in the process of repatriating. it s a relatively small number. but number 2, when we talk about this and this isimportant to understand the context around these numbers, the people we re
0 we have a responsibility to these individuals that worked with our colleagues on the ground in kabul and we are grateful for their commitment and dedication to the united states. i can confirm that the vast majority of our locally-employed staff and their immediate family members have been evacuated or are currently on the ground of the hamed karzai airport. we re working to evacuate remaining staff and we ve been in direct contact with them. these employees have served the united states. they have not only worked for us but worked with us. they are our colleagues. as you heard us say before, our embassies around the world quite simply could not function without locally-employed staff. we will continue to do everything we can to bring them to safety. so before you came out here, your colleague at the white house punted an enormous number of questions to you. you can thank her for that later. some of which involved some of the numbers you just went through and she gave some as well.