A sailor has died from Covid-19 on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. The unnamed sailor was placed in intensive care last week and declared dead on Monday.
The sailor’s identity will be withheld from the public for 24 hours in consideration of their next of kin.
The crew member was in a 14-day isolation period following a positive test on 30 March. Fellow sailors and the onsite medical team performed CPR when the sailor was found unresponsive.
The Roosevelt has been the center of controversy since its captain was fired for sounding the alarm about Covid-19 aboard his vessel. In an extraordinary move, Captain Brett Crozier sent a letter pleading for help with the virus outbreak on board.
“We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors,” Crozier wrote.
“The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating,” his four-page letter said.
The Trump administration fired Crozier and publicly criticized him. Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly attacked Crozier in an address to his crew.
“It was a betrayal,” Modly said.
“And I can tell you one other thing: because he did that he put it in the public’s forum and it is now a big controversy in Washington, D.C,” Modly said.
Modly later issued an apology and finally resigned from his post.
Monday’s death will be seen as evidence that Captain Crozier was right to ask for help. The outbreak on the aircraft carrier has already cost him and Modly their jobs, but for very different reasons.
A total of 585 sailors on the Roosevelt have tested positive for Covid-19 so far out of a crew of 4,800, but only 92% have been tested. The ship is docked at Guam and 3,967 sailors have already been taken ashore.
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