- The Navy reported three coronavirus cases aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, currently deployed in the Pacific, on Tuesday.
- These cases mark the first cases aboard a deployed US warship, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said at the Pentagon.
- The sailors who have tested positive, as well as individuals they had contact with, have been quarantined.
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Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Navy said Tuesday, revealing that this is a first for a deployed warship.
"Three cases of COVID-19 have been identified among personnel currently deployed and underway on the USS Theodore Roosevelt," Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly revealed Tuesday. "These our are first three cases of COVID-19 on a ship that is deployed."
There are roughly 5,000 sailors aboard the Nimitz-class carrier, Fox News, which first reported the cases, noted, all of whom live in tight conditions in staterooms and berthing spaces.
The sailors who have tested positive for the virus have been quarantined and are being flown off the ship. Everyone that the three infected sailors had contact with are also being quarantined as well. "This is an example of our ability to keep our ships deployed at sea even with active COVID-19 cases," Modly said, adding that the integrated naval force remains on watch.
"Our ships are sailing, our planes are flying, and training is still happening to safeguard our US national interests and those of all of our allies and partners around the world," the acting secretary said.
This marks the first time the coronavirus has been detected aboard a deployed warship, the Navy has already reported a number of cases among sailors assigned to pierside ships. As of Sunday, there had been at least a dozen cases among sailors aboard warships at port in San Diego.
US 7th Fleet said Saturday that members of Navy Forward-Deployed Preventive Medicine Units (FDPMU) and Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) embarked aboard several ships in the Pacific.
Testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is being conducted aboard the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6), the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), and the 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19).
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