Sailor on coronavirus-stricken Navy ship dies after 585 crew test positive

The Navy revealed on Sunday that at least 585 sailors have tested positive for Covid-19 from the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

The US Navy suffered its first coronavirus death after the virus ravaged a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Navy officials said the petty officer, who has not yet been identified, died on Monday after contracting the virus on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which was devastated by the outbreak that infected as at least 585 sailors on board. The officer initially tested positive for Covid-19 on March 30 and was moved to an isolation room at a US naval base in Guam, where the ship had been docked since March 27.

On April 9, the petty officer was discovered unresponsive during a daily check and was given CPR before he was moved to an intensive care unit at the US Naval Hospital. The officer died days later, which marked the first coronavirus fatality in the Navy.

According to Navy spokesperson Commander Clay Doss, four additional sailors from the ship were taken to the hospital over the weekend, although they are all reportedly in stable condition, none are in ICU or in need of a ventilator.

The outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt began in the ship’s nuclear reactor department, where the first sailors reportedly tested positive for Covid-19, The New York Times reported. The aircraft carrier has two nuclear reactors that power the ship’s propulsion and electrical systems, which requires a specialized crew of operators and technicians.

After the outbreak was discovered on the ship and predictions from doctors on board that up to 50 could die, Captain Brett Crozier sent a letter pleading for help, which was first obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, and urging the Navy to implement a ‘political solution’ and take ‘immediate and decisive action.’

‘Sailors do not need to die. There will be losses,’ Crozier warned in the letter that ultimately got him fired by then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly.

‘If he didn’t think … that if he didn’t think that information wasn’t going to get out into the public, in this information age that we live in, then he was either A: too naive, or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this,’ Modly said.

‘The alternative is that he did this on purpose,’

Modly has since apologized for his comments and resigned.