Commanders of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier failed to enforce social distancing and withdrew sailors too early from quarantine last year, aggravating an outbreak of COVID-19 among the ship's crew, according to a report from a Pentagon watchdog, NBC News reports.
The Roosevelt leadership also "allowed social gathering areas to remain open" and continued to conduct urine tests for illegal drugs despite the threat posed by the novel coronavirus and procedures outlined by the Navy, the Defense Department's inspector general said in a report released Monday.
The inspector general found that the Navy had appropriate plans in place to counter a potential outbreak of an infectious disease, but the leadership of the Roosevelt did not fully implement the required measures.
The Roosevelt had just completed a port call in Da Nang, Vietnam, when it reported the ship's first Covid case on March 24 last year. Over the course of the outbreak, 1,271 sailors, or about 27 percent of the 4,800-member crew, tested positive for Covid, according to previous statements by the Defense Department. One crew member died.
