Navy Ship With Coronavirus Patients Also Has Sacramento Sailor Onboard
SACRAMENTO (CBS) - Thousands of sailors aboard Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, including at least one from Sacramento, have been exposed to COVID-19.
Former crew member and native Sacramentan, Cherish Turner, spent a total of five years aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt and says exposure to COVID-19 onboard could be devastating because on a ship like that, carrying thousands of sailors, social distancing is just not possible.
"It's a virus it's highly contagious and knowing how fast a sickness can spread on a ship working with your peer so close I was like this can get bad," Turner said.
The ship's Captain, Brett E. Crozier, risked his career to explain why sailors can't social distance onboard and must be removed.
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Crozier wrote a request for assistance to U.S. officials and military higher-ups reading in part: "Due to a warship's inherent limitations of space, we are not doing this. The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating," Captain Cozier wrote.
Crozier's request was granted.
Officials say 24% of the USS Theodore Roosevelt's sailors have been tested for COVID19. So far, 93 sailors have tested positive, and 1,000 sailors are off the ship and quarantined on a naval base in Guam.
There's at least one sailor aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt from Sacramento we're told as of right now, he's healthy.
