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Nearly two-thirds of deployable US warships endured COVID-19 outbreaks

Saturday, 10 October 2020 11:53 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 10 October 2020 11:53 PM ]

Aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), Naval Base Guam, United States on April 07, 2020. (File photo)

Over 190 US Navy warships have endured coronavirus infections so far this year, accounting for nearly 65 percent of the services 296 deployable military vessels, said the Navy’s top officer in a message to the fleet.

The number of afflicted ships represents a stark upsurge from the at least 40 warships that the US Navy claimed had suffered from the global pandemic as of late April, Navy Times reported Friday.

The military journal further cited Navy spokeswoman Lt. Emily Wilkin as saying that the affected warships were a mix of vessels at sea and in port, adding that the service "[has] not had any [other] outbreaks like USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Kidd."

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According to the report, however, precisely which ships have suffered outbreaks, and the extent of those outbreaks, remains unclear, further noting that US Navy stopped reporting COVID-19 cases at local units last spring in accordance to Pentagon’s regulation.

In his message, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday claimed that in the majority of the cases, "aggressive early action" to quarantine affected sailors, contract trace, and enforce health protection mitigation measures "contained the incidence rate to less than five percent."

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Outbreak of the contagion on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt ultimately left nearly 1,300 crew members testing positive for the coronavirus. A similar outbreak aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd left at least 78 sailors infected with the virus before the Navy halted its public release of the crew’s status.

Gilday's cautiously optimistic message, the report added, runs contrary to messaging from US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who claimed back in May that "the safest place to be is on a deployed Navy ship as compared to one that’s in port."

"Of the 90+ ships we have at sea, we only have two that have been affected," Esper proclaimed at the time, referring to the USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Kidd outbreaks. “Two ships out of, I think, 94, it’s a pretty good record."

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