Outbreak on aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt “accelerating.”

San Diego — The captain of the San Diego-based aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, in port in Guam fighting a coronavirus outbreak among its crew, says that unless the Navy takes immediate action to isolate the crew off the ship, COVID-19 will continue to spread and “there will be losses,” he wrote in a letter sent Sunday to Pacific Fleet commanders.

The Roosevelt pulled into Guam late last week after several sailors on board tested positive for COVID-19. That was two weeks after the ship visited Da Nang, Vietnam, a country with known coronavirus cases.

In the letter published by the San Francisco Chronicle, Capt. Brett Crozier says there are two possible outcomes for the ship and its crew — remove the crew from the ship and disinfect it, or “maximize warfighting readiness” to redeploy as quickly as possible.

If the Navy chooses the second option, Crozier says, “there will be losses to the virus.”

“We are not at war, and therefore cannot allow a single sailor to perish as a result of this pandemic unnecessarily,” Crozier wrote. “Decisive action is required now … .’’

The Navy is no longer reporting the number of positive COVID-19 cases on its ships.

The Pentagon said Monday it would not release to the public specific numbers of COVID cases on its bases or by geographic regions. Instead, the military services and the Defense Department are announcing total numbers of cases worldwide.

In a statement Tuesday, the Navy acknowledged the letter was sent to the leadership of the Pacific Fleet.

“Navy leadership is moving quickly to take all necessary measures to ensure the health and safety of the crew of USS Theodore Roosevelt,” a Navy official said in an emailed statement.