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WASHINGTON: Five US sailors have been evacuated with coronavirus from an aircraft carrier despite a thorough inspection as the warship prepares to return to sea after a major outbreak, a US official confirmed Thursday (May 14).
After testing positive but asymptomatic, the five spent two weeks in quarantine in Guam, where the nuclear-powered USS Theodore Roosevelt is docked, the official said, confirming a New York Times report.
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After each negative recorded twice in subsequent tests, they were allowed to get back on board the ship.
But then they were retested and again found positive.
The Navy rejected any official comment on the new cases.
The setback comes with the Roosevelt and its nearly 5,000 crew members who have spent the past six weeks at the US Navy base. USA On the Pacific Island dealing with the outbreak.
More than a fifth of the crew tested positive, including the captain, and were quarantined when the ship underwent extensive cleaning.
The new positive cases underscored the challenges of testing and the persistence of the virus, which has caused nearly 8,300 infections and 27 deaths among US military personnel. USA And the civilian employees of the Pentagon and their families.
The Roosevelt sailed to Guam in late March and was forced to stay until April while the Pentagon faced its first real test of the pandemic.
The collapse of one of the key assets of the Navy in the Pacific raised doubts about the threat of the global spread of the coronavirus in the US military readiness. USA
Roosevelt’s outbreak led to turmoil in the upper levels of the Navy: The ship’s captain was pulled out after allowing his concerns about the outbreak to become public, with the Navy secretary firing him and then resigning for mishandling. the case.
A Pentagon official warned that the ship is now much less vulnerable to any new and large outbreaks due to continued testing, regular sterilization, wearing of masks, and crew compartmentalization.
Around 2,900 sailors have returned aboard the ship and all wear masks and maintain social distance when they can.
“It is a very different environment from when this (first) outbreak occurred,” according to the official.
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