DoD delivers update on virus-stricken aircraft carrier
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly briefed the press on 1 April on developments aboard the coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Modly confirmed 93 positive cases with 86 already displaying symptoms of the COVID-19 coronavirus. He added that 593 sailors had tested negative and a total of 1,300 tests have been taken with some results still pending.
‘We are providing the commanding officer what he has requested and we are doing our best to accelerate the pace wherever we can’ he told reporters.
Modly briefed reporters the day after the San Francisco Chronicle leaked a letter in which the captain of USS Theodore Roosevelt urged that most of the 4,000-strong crew should be evacuated from the aircraft carrier.
About 1,000 sailors have already left the USS Theodore Roosevelt and this total is expected to rise by a further 1,700 in the next few days.
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