WASHINGTON – Aircraft carrier commanders USS Theodore Roosevelt failed to enforce social detachment and removed sailors from quarantine very early last year, aggravating a Covid-19 outbreak among the ship’s crew, according to an observer report of the Pentagon.
Roosevelt’s leadership also “allowed social gathering areas to remain open” and continued to conduct urine tests for illegal drugs, despite the threat posed by the new coronavirus and procedures outlined by the Navy, said the Department of Defense inspector general in a report released on Monday.
The inspector general found that the Navy had appropriate plans in place to contain a potential outbreak of an infectious disease, but Roosevelt’s leadership did not fully implement the necessary measures.
Roosevelt had just completed a stopover in Da Nang, Vietnam, when it reported the ship’s first Covid case on March 24 last year. Over 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. A crew member died.
The aircraft carrier commander, Captain Brett Crozier, had raised the alarm about the outbreak among his crew by sending a letter with strong words to Navy leaders who raised their concerns about the spread of the virus on the ship. The letter was leaked to the media and made headlines.
Crozier was released from command after the letter leaked, although he maintained his position.
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 by “unclassified unclassified email” to a “wide range of people” instead of climbing up. chain of command.
As a basis for the conclusions of Monday’s report, the inspector general cited an investigation by the Navy command on the spread of Covid on board the Roosevelt.
According to the inspector general’s report, “the ineffective implementation of social detachment and the premature release of sailors from quarantine were the main causes of the increased infection on board the ship.”
The report, citing the office of the Chief of Naval Operations, also said that four of the Navy’s top five commanders did not carry out biennial pandemic flu and infectious disease exercises, as required by Navy instructions.
But the inspector general said the Navy sought to learn lessons from the Roosevelt episode and updated its guidelines on Covid. The new messages “helped to mitigate new outbreaks,” the report said.
The Navy “continued to deploy warships and submarines without additional widespread outbreaks that would otherwise cripple warships and interrupt their support for combatant commanders,” the document said.
The report cited a recent US Navy manual on coronavirus, which states: “It is critical to understand that the most effective way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is to practice simple public health mitigation measures.”
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 flu and infectious diseases and include lessons learned from another outbreak last year on board a destroyer, the USS Kidd. The report also recommended that the Navy develop an action plan to ensure that biennial exercises on pandemic influenza and infectious diseases are carried out.
The Navy agreed with all the recommendations, according to the report.