Not at war, sailors don't need to die: US captain on Covid-19-hit ship

Washington: The captain of the U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, in a blunt letter, has called on Navy leadership for stronger measures to save the lives of his sailors and stop the spread of the coronavirus aboard the huge ship.

The four-page letter, the contents of which were confirmed by U.S. officials to Reuters on Tuesday, described a bleak situation on board the nuclear-powered carrier as more and more sailors test positive for the virus.

The Navy puts the ship's complement at 5,000, the equivalent of a small American town.

The letter was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Captain Brett Crozier, the ship's commanding officer, wrote that the carrier lacked enough quarantine and isolation facilities and warned the current strategy would slow but fail to eradicate the virus.

In the letter dated Monday, he called for "decisive action" and removing over 4,000 sailors from the ship and isolating them. Along with the ship's crew, naval aviator and others serve aboard the Roosevelt.

"We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset - our sailors," Crozier wrote.

The carrier was in the Pacific when the Navy reported its first coronavirus case a week ago. It has since pulled into port in Guam, a U.S. island territory in the western Pacific.

Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said he had heard about the letter on Tuesday morning and that the Navy has been working for several days to get the sailors off ship in Guam. Modly said Guam did not have enough beds, and the Navy was in talks with the local government to use hotels and set up tents.