WASHINGTON – Commanders of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier did not apply the social distance and withdrew the sailors from the quarantine too early last year, exacerbating an outbreak of Covid-19 among the crew of the ship, according to a report of a Pentagon watchdog.
The Roosevelt leadership also ‘allowed areas to remain open for social gatherings’ and continued urine tests for illegal drugs, despite the threat posed by the new coronavirus and procedures by the navy, the department’s inspector general said. defense said in a report released Monday.
The inspector general found that the navy had appropriate plans to counter a possible outbreak of a contagious disease, but the Roosevelt leadership did not fully implement the necessary measures.
The Roosevelt had just completed a port call in Da Nang, Vietnam, when it reported the ship’s first Covid case on March 24 last year. In the course of the outbreak, 1,271 sailors, or about 27 percent of the 4,800-member crew, tested positive for Covid, according to previous statements by the Department of Defense. One crew member is dead.
The commander of the aircraft carrier, Captain Brett Crozier, sounded the alarm about the outbreak among his crew and sent a strongly worded letter to the leaders of the navy outlining his concern about the spread of the virus on the ship. The letter leaked to the media and got the news.
Crozier was relieved of his command after the letter leaked, although he retained his rank.
The then acting secretary of the navy, Thomas Modly, said at the time that Crozier was removed from his post because he allegedly sent the letter about ‘unsafe unclassified email’ to a ‘broad crowd of people’ rather than in the chain.
As a basis for the findings in Monday’s report, the Inspector General quoted a naval order investigation of the Covid aboard the Roosevelt.
According to the inspector general’s report, “the ineffective implementation of social distance and the premature release of quarantine sailors were the primary causes of increased contamination on board the ship.”
The report, citing the office of the Chief of Navy Operations, also said that four out of five major Navy missions did not do biennial pandemic flu and infectious diseases as required by the Navy command.
But the Inspector General said the Navy tried to learn lessons from the Roosevelt episode and updated its guidance on Covid. The report said the new messages ‘helped mitigate further outbreaks’.
The navy “continued to deploy warships and submarines without additional widespread outbreaks that would otherwise paralyze warships and interrupt their support to the fighting commanders,” he said.
The report quotes a recent U.S. naval handbook on the coronavirus as saying, ‘It is critical to understand that the most effective way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is to take simple public health mitigation measures. to practice. ‘
The Inspector-General recommended that the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans and Strategy and the Surgeon-General of the Navy update the policy on pandemic influenza and infectious diseases, and include the lessons learned from another outbreak last year. aboard a destroyer, the USS Kidd. The report also recommends that the Navy draw up a plan of action to ensure it conducts biennial exercises on pandemic flu and infectious diseases.
According to the report, the Navy agreed with all the recommendations.