- A sailor on board USNS Comfort, the Navy hospital ship in New York City, tested positive for the coronavirus, ABC News reported late Monday night.
- The news was announced shortly after President Donald Trump agreed to let the 1,000-bed ship start taking COVID-19 patients.
- It's unlikely the sailor got sick because of this decision because they had not come into contact with any of the ship's patients, and the average incubation period for the virus is five days.
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A sailor on board the hospital ship sent to aid New York City, the epicenter of the US coronavirus outbreak, has tested positive for COVID-19.
ABC News reported on the news late Monday night, hours after President Trump agreed to a request from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo asking that the ship be used to treat coronavirus patients.
Comfort was sent to Manhattan to take some of the burden off area hospitals by receiving non-COVID-19 patients. But when it turned out there weren't many of these patients to treat, the governor asked for the ship to change its mission.
It's unlikely that the sailor got sick as as a result of this decision, since the crew member had not come into contact with any of the the ship's patients, and the average incubation period for the virus is around five days, according to one study.
In fact, the unidentified sailor is likely one of the rare cases in which symptoms presented well after infection, since the crew of the Comfort were required to quarantine for two weeks before they left their home port in Virginia for New York.
Sailors on the ship are also not being allowed to leave the ship for the duration of their mission to New York, to prevent catching the virus and spreading it aboard the ship.
The Navy told ABC News in a statement that the sailor in question is currently in isolation on board the ship.
The other crew members the infected sailor had contact with have all tested negative for coronavirus, but are being isolated as well out of an abundance of caution.
"There is no impact to Comfort's mission, and this will not affect the ability for Comfort to receive patients," the Navy statement read in part. "The ship is following protocols and taking every precaution to ensure the health and safety of all crew members and patients on board."
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