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Scores of sailors aboard U.S. navy ship contract COVID-19, captain urges officials to help

3 years 11 months 3 weeks ago Thursday, April 02 2020 Apr 2, 2020 April 02, 2020 8:05 AM April 02, 2020 in News
Source: BBC News

The captain of the Theodore Roosevelt, a US aircraft carrier carrying more than 4,000 crew, has called for urgent help to halt a coronavirus outbreak on his ship.

According to the BBC, multitudes of those on board tested positive for the infection and the carrier is now docked in Guam.

"We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," Captain Brett Crozier wrote in a letter to the Pentagon.

Captain Crozier recommended quarantining almost the entire crew.

In his letter, the captain said that with large numbers of sailors living in confined spaces on the carrier isolating sick individuals was impossible.

The coronavirus' spread was now "ongoing and accelerating", he warned, in a March 30th letter. 

"Removing the majority of personnel from a deployed US nuclear aircraft carrier and isolating them for two weeks may seem like an extraordinary measure. This is a necessary risk," he said.

The San Francisco Chronicle, which first reported on the letter, said at least 100 sailors were infected and a US Navy spokesman told reporters the service was "moving quickly to take all necessary measures to ensure the health and safety of the crew of USS Theodore Roosevelt".

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