First US Navy sailor tests positive for virus aboard ship

First US Navy sailor tests positive for virus aboard ship


USS Boxer (LHD-4).

3/15/20
A sailor serving aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer received a presumptive positive coronavirus test, the first case of a sailor aboard a Navy ship, according to a US Navy news release. Personnel that the individual immediately identified having close contact with have been notified and are in self-isolation at their residences, the release said. “The individual is currently quarantined at home in accordance with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Guidelines,” the release said. “Personnel that the individual immediately identified having close contact with have been notified and are in self-isolation at their residences. None of them is aboard the ship currently.” Earlier on Sunday, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar announced in statement that a second Marine stationed at the base in California has tested positive for coronavirus. The air station is conducting an investigation to determine who may have had contact with the Marine and notify them of the situation. The Marine was placed into isolation in a barracks room at the base designated for quarantine, the statement said.

Click to expand...

USS Boxer is currently moored at Berth 6, Pier 13 at Naval Base San Diego. I asked the question a few weeks ago. What if a sailor(s) should test positive aboard a CVN aircraft carrier at sea? These ships have a complement of almost 6,000 personnel. Because COVID-19 can be asymptomatic for over a week, cascade transmission would almost certainly occur on a grand scale. X number of people are always required on duty stations aboard a CVN at sea, so everyone could not be quarantined at one time (sufficient bunk capacity would be extremely problematic). This is a nightmare scenario.

Related: Sailor assigned to USS Boxer (LHD 4) Tests Presumptive Positive for COVID-19

Rogue Valley said:

First US Navy sailor tests positive for virus aboard ship

USS Boxer (LHD-4).



USS Boxer is currently moored at Berth 6, Pier 13 at Naval Base San Diego. I asked the question a few weeks ago. What if a sailor(s) should test positive aboard a CVN aircraft carrier at sea? These ships have a complement of almost 6,000 personnel. Because COVID-19 can be asymptomatic for over a week, cascade transmission would almost certainly occur on a grand scale. X number of people are always required on duty stations aboard a CVN at sea, so everyone could not be quarantined at one time (sufficient bunk capacity would be extremely problematic). This is a nightmare scenario.

Related: Sailor assigned to USS Boxer (LHD 4) Tests Presumptive Positive for COVID-19

Click to expand...

How do you keep the military from groups of 50 or more, like CDC recommends? A rhetorical question. OK, a smart-ass rhetorical question.

bluesmoke said:

How do you keep the military from groups of 50 or more, like CDC recommends? A rhetorical question. OK, a smart-ass rhetorical question.

Click to expand...

But a very good one!

I do suspect our military has prepped for these type of incidents, though I have no idea of what that may be.

Rogue Valley said:

First US Navy sailor tests positive for virus aboard ship

USS Boxer (LHD-4).



USS Boxer is currently moored at Berth 6, Pier 13 at Naval Base San Diego. I asked the question a few weeks ago. What if a sailor(s) should test positive aboard a CVN aircraft carrier at sea? These ships have a complement of almost 6,000 personnel. Because COVID-19 can be asymptomatic for over a week, cascade transmission would almost certainly occur on a grand scale. X number of people are always required on duty stations aboard a CVN at sea, so everyone could not be quarantined at one time (sufficient bunk capacity would be extremely problematic). This is a nightmare scenario.

Related: Sailor assigned to USS Boxer (LHD 4) Tests Presumptive Positive for COVID-19

Click to expand...

One of the more dangerous possibilities is that other countries may try to pull something while this is all happening. Because of that, I support whatever measures our military will need to enforce to keep themselves strong.

Chomsky said:

But a very good one!

I do suspect our military has prepped for these type of incidents, though I have no idea of what that may be.

Click to expand...

Yeah. The military has an advantage over the civilian pop like China has an advantage over our democracy to do with Coronavirus, testing for example. The military can line your butt up and test you, no choice. So can China. They'll test your temp coming into a store and YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. We're so lazy and laissez-faire, manana.

This isnt really that hard to keep off ships going out to sea or out to sea. Test everyone for it. Then test everyone before coming aboard as they cross the quarter deck if you are in port via temps, questions. Team standing by to quarantine those who are positive.

As for those out to sea, if they are out for greater than 2 weeks, and no one has it, then just ensure you dont fly anyone new aboard unless they were quarantined/isolated for 2 weeks.

We not only quarantined ourselves for the Smallpox shots, we also had to respect quarantines in Asia when SARS went through to the point that a Sailor who broke her elbow right as we left the Persian Gulf was stuck on board for 2 weeks with a broken arm until she could fly off in Guam. While this is certainly different, there is space on a nuclear aircraft carrier to make arrangements. Other ships would be harder.

Besides, we get gastroenteritis aboard those things almost every cruise, and that spreads bad, especially since it is normally the CSs or Mess Crankers who get it and then spread it.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

roguenuke said:

This isnt really that hard to keep off ships going out to sea or out to sea. Test everyone for it. Then test everyone before coming aboard as they cross the quarter deck if you are in port via temps, questions. Team standing by to quarantine those who are positive.

Click to expand...

And on most ships of that size, quarantine is not all that difficult.

Ships like that have multiple galleys (kitchens for those who never served aboard ship), and can isolate large sections from each other. This is done for many reasons, including chemical or biological attack.

They simply cordon off a segment around where the outbreak is, and they then use their own dedicated kitchen until the danger has passed.

And in reality, there really is not all that much interaction aboard a ship. I know that us knuckle draggers that lived in the steerage class almost only dealt with each other. Other than the squids in the galley, we had almost no contact with the rest of the ship unless we were out on the fantail having a smoke. And most I know even in the navy shared similar experiences. They largely kept to their own areas of the ship, and mostly just went from berthing to the galley, to work then back to berthing. Generally interacting with the same people day in and day out.

If one group got sick, they isolate them into one of the berthing areas, have their meals brought to them from a single galley, and simply stay in isolation until the danger is passed.

tacomancer said:

One of the more dangerous possibilities is that other countries may try to pull something while this is all happening. Because of that, I support whatever measures our military will need to enforce to keep themselves strong.

Click to expand...

Absolutely. A nightmare scenario.

bluesmoke said:

Yeah. The military has an advantage over the civilian pop like China has an advantage over our democracy to do with Coronavirus, testing for example. The military can line your butt up and test you, no choice. So can China. They'll test your temp coming into a store and YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. We're so lazy and laissez-faire, manana.

Click to expand...

What does it take to have handgun shaped small thermometers everywhere that a person holds to your head or neck or wrist to instantly read your temperature is the question for the USA. The obvious answer is that it requires a Potus who doesn't have his head up his ass.

bluesmoke said:

How do you keep the military from groups of 50 or more, like CDC recommends? A rhetorical question. OK, a smart-ass rhetorical question.

Click to expand...

Just ask for volunteers.

You get zero every time.

Thought you knew that we did.

Rogue Valley said:

First US Navy sailor tests positive for virus aboard ship

USS Boxer (LHD-4).



USS Boxer is currently moored at Berth 6, Pier 13 at Naval Base San Diego. I asked the question a few weeks ago. What if a sailor(s) should test positive aboard a CVN aircraft carrier at sea? These ships have a complement of almost 6,000 personnel. Because COVID-19 can be asymptomatic for over a week, cascade transmission would almost certainly occur on a grand scale. X number of people are always required on duty stations aboard a CVN at sea, so everyone could not be quarantined at one time (sufficient bunk capacity would be extremely problematic). This is a nightmare scenario.

Related: Sailor assigned to USS Boxer (LHD 4) Tests Presumptive Positive for COVID-19

Click to expand...

Everyone on CVNs has their own racks. We dont hotrack.

Also, we deal with outbreaks of various illnesses all the time. Try going from around 60 degrees (berthing) to 100+ degrees (workspace) in less than 3 minutes, spending 5 hours on watch, getting soaked in sweat, and 3 minutes later bring back in 60 degree berthing. And almost every cruise I went on had gastroenteritis spread throughout the crew.

And Sailors would be most likely to be in the mild symptoms group. Healthy people around late teens to upper 30s, maybe 40s for most of the ship's crew.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

Thanks roguenuke. I've been aboard an amphibious landing ship, but never a CVN.

But it seems smaller ships may experience a coronavirus problem.

After Discovering a Sailor With Coronavirus, the US Navy Crowded Dozens Into One Space

The incident shows how hard it may be for the Navy to limit coronavirus spread aboard its ships.

Pentagon said today that of the 49 known military cases of coronavirus 7 military have recovered while 3 are hospitalized.

Here's the Pentagon's breakdown of the 49 plus DoD related cases:

Military 49 total (+13); hospitalized 3 (+1); Of which 7 are recovered.
Civilian 14 (+6); 6 (+1); 0
Dependent 19 (+7); 1 (+1); 0
Contractor 7 (+4); 4 (+1)

49 known cases of COVID‑19 in DOD community

11:39 AM: There are 49 known cases of COVID‑19 among the DOD community as of 5 a.m. Wednesday, according to a Defense Department fact sheet released Tuesday. That’s up 30 from the previous day, and includes 49 military, 14 civilians, 19 dependents, and seven contractors.

The fact sheet also says National Guard units in 22 states are providing coronavirus-related aid to their states’ governors.

The Prognosis: Latest News on Coronavirus & National Security - Defense One

Click to expand...

Same source:

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper visited Fort Detrick, MD to see how DoD
doctors and scientists are advancing vaccine and treatment efforts.

Afterward, he conducted a briefing with the Pentagon press corps where he announced
DoD is prepared to distribute up to 5M N-92 masks (1M immediately) and up
to 2,000 deployable ventilators to HHS.

Additionally, the Navy’s hospital ships are preparing to deploy.

• USTRANSCOM released guidance for personnel affected by the DoD stop
movement order.

• USAFRICOM cancelled its PHOENIX EXPRESS exercise.

• USNORTHCOM is supporting HHS by currently housing 1,472 personnel:
Travis AFB (850), Lackland AFB (134), MCAS Miramar (238), Dobbins
ARB/Clay (250).

Click to expand...

roguenuke said:

Everyone on CVNs has their own racks. We dont hotrack.

Click to expand...

I think the only part of the navy where that might still done is on subs.

Even us kept in steerage on the really old ships (USS Iwo Jima LPH-2, 1961) had our own racks. Now granted, the Marine berthing looked like it could have come out of a WWII movie, with us stacked 5 deep on little more than a stretcher bolted to the wall, but we did have our own racks. And on newer ships like the USS Whidbey Island (LSD-41, 1985) we were 3 high, with our own little cubicle that even had power and AC-heating vents, curtains, and reading lights.

In all my years in the military, I only had to do that in one place. And that was at my first duty station where we were the 24 hour security contingent. On our duty days there were around 30 of us on guard duty, half on post and the other half off and sleeping. And our guard bunker had maybe 15 racks, so when a new group went on post they shoved their bedding into their seabags and those that got off pulled theirs out and got on the same rack.

But back in the barracks we all had our own racks, that was only for the 1 in 3 days we pulled guard duty. And the Corporal of the Guard and Sergeant of the Guard both shared a single rack. But at least one of them was supposed to be awake at all times, so that was never a problem.

Not really unlike how things would be in a firehouse.

Tangmo said:

What does it take to have handgun shaped small thermometers everywhere that a person holds to your head or neck or wrist to instantly read your temperature is the question for the USA. The obvious answer is that it requires a Potus who doesn't have his head up his ass.

Click to expand...

Trouble is, His head is up your ass.

Tangmo said:

Just ask for volunteers.

You get zero every time.

Thought you knew that we did.

Click to expand...

Funny how that works. They never run away in the same direction. I grok.