More than 200 Sailors Aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt Are COVID-19 Positive

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• At least 200 sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt have been tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
• Two thousand others who were tested came back with a negative result. They were temporarily moved to shore.
• The ship has since docked at a Naval base in Guam to isolate and test the crew.

There have been at least 200 sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier who tested positive for COVID-19.

The ship’s captain was recalled to have been fired because he issued a warning to the Navy about the outbreak.

Seventy-nine percent of the crew was tested as of Tuesday afternoon — 230 of those tests came back positive, while more than 2,000 were negative, according to the Navy.

The Navy said that hospitalizations have not been required. Those 2,000 sailors who tested negative were moved to shore temporarily as a response to the coronavirus outbreak.

“As testing continues, the ship will keep enough Sailors on board to sustain essential services and sanitize the ship in port,” said the Navy.

Just last week, the then commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, published a memo that warns about the crew facing grave consequences if the Navy will not deal with the outbreak onboard the ship. The message was since leaked to the news media that made it a national focus.

In addition, Crozier maintained that they will die if the majority of the crew of 4,800 weren’t evacuated.

He wrote, “we are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.”

Crozier was criticized by then-Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly saying, “[Crozier is] too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this.”

On Tuesday, a day after his statements were leaked, Modly eventually resigned.

Currently, the ship is anchored at a Naval base in Guam for testing and isolation of the crew members.

More than 660 COVID-19 cases are reported by the Navy in its ranks.

Source: The HILL