With 413 positive COVID-19 cases from the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the aircraft carrier now accounts for 70 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Navy — and about 20 percent of all active-duty cases across the entire military.
A large portion of the vessel's crewmembers — 2,700 sailors — have been moved off the vessel and into hotels and other temporary lodging facilities in Guam. Those who have tested positive for COVID-19 are self-isolating. One sailor was found unresponsive in his isolation quarters Thursday morning and has since been moved into intensive care. He is the first hospitalization out of the 413 COVID-19 cases onboard.
"Deep down I was hoping that we would never get to that point," Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Hyten said during a Pentagon press briefing on Thursday. "I was hoping the numbers would be 0 at the end of this. But that's just not going to be the case with coronavirus. There's always going to be those 1 or 2 that come in even in our demographic."
The COVID-19 positive sailors from the USS TR who are taking isolation measures on land receive two visits from medical personnel per day for health and wellness checks, according to Hyten.
It was during an overnight twelve-hour gap between visits that the condition of the sailor now in ICU worsened. However, Hyten said these sailors are not as alone as two visits per day might suggest.
"The sailors aren't by themselves. They have buddy systems. It's not just waiting for the medical folks to come out every 12 hours. They've got buddies around them all the time. This particular one happened from night to morning but there were buddies around and the buddies found him," Hyten explained.
Hyten did not elaborate on how the "buddy system" works around self-isolation and social distancing measures.
Both Hyten and Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist insisted that, regardless of the current state of the crew, the USS TR is still mission capable.
"It's fully capable of performing its mission if there was a need for it to deploy right away it would be able to do so," Norquist said, explaining that the vast majority of the 413 COVID-19 cases among the crew are either experiencing mild, flu-like symptoms or no symptoms at all. "If it had to go, it could."
"One carrier, as mighty as that carrier is and as amazing as that carrier is — it's a small fraction of the combat power that the United States brings to a puzzle," Hyten added.
Hyten also said, however, that to plan as if the USS TR is the only vessel this susceptible to coronavirus would be a mistake.
"It's not a good idea to think that the Teddy Roosevelt is a one-of-a-kind issue. We have too many ships at sea, we have too many deployed capabilities ...To think it will never happen again is not a good way to plan," Hyten said.
The USS TR is still awaiting results from about 1,000 tests.
The COVID-19 situation onboard the USS TR developed quickly. On March 23, the aircraft carrier reported 3 COVID-19 cases. Within days that number had grown to 25. The ship's captain, Brett Crozier, took desperate measures to expedite aid to the sailors on board. He was relieved from duty days later.
SECNAV offers resignation following USS Theodore Roosevelt uproar
Former Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, who dismissed Crozier, has since resigned after facing backlash for his decision and subsequent comments about the captain.
The Navy outpaces all other branches of the service with 597 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The Army has the second-highest case count with 389.
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