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USS Theodore Roosevelt completes COVID-19 testing after outbreak on ship

USS Theodore Roosevelt completes testing for COVID-19 after outbreak on ship
Posted at 12:47 PM, Apr 23, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-23 13:50:18-04

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — All of the USS Theodore Roosevelt's crew has been tested for coronavirus. This comes after the San Diego-based carrier was forced to dock in Guam as the virus spread on board.

The Navy said Thursday that 840 crew members have tested positive for COVID-19 and 4,098 have tested negative. A small number of results are still pending, according to the Navy.

Of the ship's cases, 88 sailors have recovered. There have also been 4,234 sailors that have moved ashore for the time being.

Four sailors from the ship are currently being treated in U.S. Naval Hospital Guam for their symptoms. None of those hospitalized are in intensive care, the Navy says.

One sailor from the ship died earlier this month after contracting the virus. Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., 41, passed away on April 13.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt gained widespread media coverage in March, when former carrier Captain Brett Crozier sent a memo to Navy leadership asking for immediate help removing the crew from the ship as the virus started to spread.

The memo was widely published, leading to Capt. Crozier's firing.

Then-Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned shortly after the firing after his address to the ship's crew was made public, in which he said Crozier's actions were a "betrayal" and "too naive or too stupid."

This story was originally published by Mark Saunders at KGTV.