Sailor Aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt Dies After Contracting Coronavirus
A sailor serving on the USS Theodore Roosevelt died Monday after contracting the coronavirus, the U.S. Navy announced.
The unidentified sailor, whose name is being kept private until 24 hours after his family is notified, died from health complications after testing positive for the virus late last month.
“The Sailor tested positive for COVID-19 March 30, was removed from the ship and placed in an isolation house on Naval Base Guam with four other USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Sailors. Like other Sailors in isolation, he received medical checks twice daily from Navy medical teams,” the Office of the Navy Chief of Information said in a statement.
The sailor was moved to the intensive care unit of a U.S. Navy hospital on Thursday after he was found unresponsive that morning during a daily medical check.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Guam on March 27 for a scheduled port visit to restock supplies and allow the crew to rest.
Former acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned earlier this month after backlash over a speech he gave to the vessel’s crew members condemning Captain Brett Crozier, the former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier who urged his superiors to evacuate the warship as the virus spread among its sailors. Modly said that Crozier “too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this” if he thought his letter to superiors wouldn’t leak to the press.
“Sailors don’t need to die,” Crozier wrote in a letter that was leaked to the media.
Crozier was relieved of duty and cheered by sailors aboard the ship as he was escorted off. He later caught the coronavirus himself.
The aircraft carrier has reported at least 550 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
