Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
ANOTHER NAVY ship fighting virus.
The Navy is coping with a new coronavirus outbreak on a warship at sea, with at least 18 cases emerging on the destroyer USS Kidd, defense officials said Friday.
The outbreak became evident after a sailor aboard the vessel developed symptoms associated with the virus, and the Navy flew the individual to San Antonio for testing. After the positive case was confirmed, the Navy deployed a specialized medical team to the ship to conduct contact tracing and additional testing, said chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman.
“They are preparing to return to port, where they will undertake efforts to clean the ship,” Hoffman told reporters Friday. “They will remove a portion of the crew from the ship and work to get everybody back to health and get the ship back to sea.”
“The first patient transported is already improving and will self-isolate. We are taking every precaution to ensure we identify, isolate, and prevent any further spread onboard the ship,” Rear Admiral Don Gabrielson, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and the 4th Fleet, said in a statement. “Our medical team continues coordinating with the ship and our focus is the safety and well-being of every Sailor.”
The destroyer, which typically deploys with a crew and aviation detachment of more than 160 people, had been deployed this month in the Pacific
Ocean as part of a military task force that carries out drug interdiction, according to the ship’s Facebook page. Its home port is in San Diego.
“Testing continues, and we expect additional cases,” the Navy said in a statement. “All measures are being taken to evaluate the extent of the COVID-19 transmission on the ship.”
The disclosure came as the Navy prepares to announce the findings of an investigation into a much larger outbreak in the Pacific aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier that has been crippled in Guam for weeks as testing and quarantining occurs.
Hoffman said he expected the chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael Gilday, to brief Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday about the Navy’s findings. The ship has been under a microscope for weeks, after hundreds of cases emerged and the commanding officer, Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, sent a memo to three admirals raising alarm about the pace of the service’s response.
As of Thursday, 850 of 4,938 sailors from the Theodore Roosevelt — about 17% — had tested positive for the virus, the Navy said. Four sailors were still hospitalized at Naval Base Guam.
One Theodore Roosevelt sailor, Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., 41, died April 13 after testing positive for the coronavirus March 30.
Asked whether the Pentagon fears that the Kidd may become another Roosevelt crisis, Hoffman said the Navy acted quickly once learning of the first symptomatic sailor.
“The Navy has lessons learned from prior experience with a covid crisis, and they have been quickly applying those to this case,” Hoffman said. “Fingers crossed, the Navy is doing everything they can right now, and we’re going to hope for the best outcome, but they are going to take all of the prudent steps that they possibly can.” Information for this article was contributed by Dan Lamothe of The Washington Post; and by Robert Burns of The Associated Press.