The captain of the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt has told the Pentagon that the coronavirus is spreading uncontrollably through his ship and calls for immediate help to quarantine its huge crew.
Captain Brett Crozier writes in a four-page letter that they had not been able to stem the spread of the COVID-19 virus through the 4,000 crewmembers, describing a dire situation aboard the vessel now docked at Guam.
US Navy Airman Zackary Knabe writes down aircraft identifiers on primary flight control room window aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) in the Persian Gulf on January 4, 2018. (US Navy/ Spencer Roberts)
“We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die,” Crozier writes, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published a copy of the letter Tuesday.
“The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating,” Crozier writes, referring to the ship’s “inherent limitations of space.”
He asks to be able to quarantine nearly the entire crew onshore at Guam, saying keeping them all on board the ship was an “unnecessary risk.”
“Removing the majority of personnel from a deployed US nuclear aircraft carrier and isolating them for two weeks may seem like an extraordinary measure,” he says. “This is a necessary risk.”
— AFP
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