Coronavirus: Captain’s plea to save sailors from outbreak on aircraft carrier

The captain of a US aircraft carrier with a crew of 5000 wants to dock to save at least 70 sailors fighting a coronavirus outbreak.

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has at least 70 cases of COVID-19 among the crew of 5000.

The captain of an American ­aircraft carrier in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak at sea has asked for permission allowing the ship to dock to quarantine the 5000 crew on board, saying sailors’ lives were at stake.

“We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die,” USS Theodore Roosevelt captain Brett Crozier wrote from the carrier docked in the Pacific territory of Guam.

“If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.”

The four-page memo, dated Monday, presents at best a mixed picture of US navy efforts to contain the outbreak on the ship.

Samples from the USS Theodore Roosevelt are tested at the US Naval Medical Research Centre. Picture: AFP

While navy officials at the Penta­gon have stressed that the outbreak hadn’t affected the ship’s readiness and that none of the cases were serious, Captain Crozier’s memo outlined a race against time in containing the virus.

At least 70 sailors have tested positive for the virus, which first appeared on the ship last week, navy officials said. The navy had said it was flying testing supplies to the ship, but in his memo Captain Crozier described the limitations of testing, saying that of the first 33 sailors tested, seven who tested negative displayed symptoms of infection one to three days later.

He said the ship’s close quarters rendered the carrier unable to comply with guidelines for social distancing. He wrote that close quarters, shared meals and bathroom spaces are “most conducive” to the spread of the virus.

“With the exceptions of a handful of senior officer staterooms, none of the berthing onboard a warship is appropriate for quarantine or isolation,” Captain Crozier wrote.

Navy commanders said they were “moving quickly to take all necessary measures to ensure the health and safety of the crew”.

Some family members, frustrated by the lack of information from the navy, were glad to hear about Captain Crozier’s memo.

“When you are home on land, you can check in and see your child,” said one family member of a sailor deployed on the Roosevelt. “But we have no way to get to them, so the only way we know anything is when we hear from them.”

Before docking in Guam, sailors­ had begun cleaning the ship more frequently and officers moved some of those infected to cots in places such as the vessel’s gym. But Captain Crozier wrote that “the current strategy will only slow the spread”.

The crew is expected to stay in Guam for weeks, navy officials said, but didn’t say where the sailors were being housed or how the ship was being cleaned.

The first three sailors to test positive for the virus on the Roosevelt were flown to a US military hospital in Guam a week ago. At the time, the aircraft carrier was about 160km from Guam.

The sailors had visited Danang in Vietnam earlier last month during a port visit and may have contracted­ the virus there, navy officials said, or from a flight crew from a visiting aircraft

Across the US military, 673 service members have been infected, according to Pentagon statistics.

The Wall Street Journal