Washington: In a major development impacting the US Navy, reports said that there are currently Coronavirus cases on 26 warships of the country, and another 14 have been hit by the virus but the crew members impacted have recovered.
The Navy is not releasing the names of the individual ships impacted or the exact number of cases because the Department of Defense states that it would risk operational security if the details became public.
There are currently 90 ships at sea with no reported cases and the Navy currently has 297 active duty warships.
As of April 22 morning, 3,578 US service members have tested positive for the virus, including two deaths. Nearly 800 of those cases have come from the outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier where one sailor also died.
More than 4,000 sailors on the Roosevelt had been moved ashore and were scheduled to begin returning to the ship this coming weekend after finishing a 14-day isolation period but that process has been paused because 120 previously asymptomatic sailors tested positive.
As a result, the Navy has decided to keep all personnel already ashore in place until it can learn more about how the virus remains active in an asymptomatic person.
In a message to his forces, Pacific Fleet Commander, Admiral John Aquilino directed the halting of the release of crew members from “isolation and quarantine” over concerns some may test positive after being released. He added “that this will delay progress” towards “deploying units” and emphasised “we must take this action to ensure we get underway with healthy crews.”
The Roosevelt’s Commander Capt Brett Crozier was fired earlier this month for what the then acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said was poor judgment for too widely disseminating a warning about the spread of virus aboard his vessel, a warning that eventually made its way into the press.
Modly resigned days later over his handling of the incident, actions which included a $240,000 trip to Guam where he slammed Crozier and admonished sailors for giving him a rousing send off in public remarks to the crew.
Last week the Navy and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention launched an investigation into the outbreak aboard the Roosevelt.
That inquiry will look to establish the origin of the outbreak and understand how it spread rapidly on board the ship.
The results of a separate Navy investigation into the circumstances of Crozier’s memo is expected soon and it is possible he could be reinstated.
“This is a stealthy virus in many ways and this outbreak investigation is an important medical weapon to understand its behavior so that we can better protect the crew, their shipmates on other vessels and ultimately the nation,” Rear Adm Bruce Gillingham, US Navy Surgeon General said on April 24.
To carry out the investigation, crew members are being asked on a voluntary basis to complete a survey and provide two new specimens — blood and nasal swabs — for laboratory testing, according to the Navy. It hopes to get 1,000 volunteers which is what it believes is needed for representative sampling.
