Rising infections force US warship into maintenance: analysts

Following the first three confirmed novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) cases on board the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt on Tuesday, the figure reportedly rocketed to 25 on Thursday, as the warship is heading toward Guam. Chinese military experts said on Friday that this latest move indicates the Theodore Roosevelt has now been into a maintenance condition and decided that scheduled military missions be cancelled.

Additional COVID-19 tests among the crew are expected, and possibly “dozens” of new cases could emerge, CNN reported on Thursday, citing an official, while another official said the number of additional cases is expected to be large, to an extent the US Defense Department would be unlikely to publicly specify how many of the Navy’s overall cases are amongst members of the crew of the aircraft carrier, “due to concerns that adversaries such as China or North Korea could see the ship as vulnerable.”

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said that the Theodore Roosevelt is in a process of testing all of the crew, approximately 5,000 personnel, as the aircraft carrier is pulling into Guam, CNN reported.

These measures indicate the US has essentially put the Theodore Roosevelt in a maintenance condition and had all scheduled military missions cancelled, as the aircraft carrier’s main mission now has shifted to docking in Guam, quarantining all of its crew members at the military base there and conducting thorough disinfection work on the entire ship, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Friday.

Song said he expects all crew members to leave the ship and be quarantined for 14 days.