US sailors will die unless virus-hit aircraft carrier evacuated: Captain

American sailors aboard a US aircraft carrier will die unless the coronaviru-hit vessel is evacuated, the ship’s captain warns.

Captain Brett Crozier, the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt with 5,000 people onboard, called for help to save the lives of his sailors after an unconfirmed number tested positive for Covid-19 a week ago while the carrier was in the pacific.

In his four-page letter dated Monday, Crozier described how bleak the situation was onboard the nuclear-powered carrier as more sailors are diagnosed with the virus.

He wrote that the carrier lacked sufficient quarantine and isolation facilities, warning the current strategy would slow but fail to eliminate the virus.

He called for “decisive action” and the removal of more than 4,000 sailors from the ship and their isolation. Other personnel aboard the Roosevelt include the ship’s crew, naval aviators and others.

“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 spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating," he added.

Reuters has quoted anonymous US officials as saying that almost 80 people aboard the ship had been infected with the coronavirus, a number projected to rise as all personnel on the ship are tested.

The navy, which puts the ship’s complement at 5,000, the equivalent of a small American town, has so far declined to confirm the exact number of people tested positive.

The ship has pulled into port in Guam, a US island territory in the western Pacific, since the first cases were confirmed. The island of Guam is the hotspot of the virus in the Pacific region and is already struggling to deal with the nearly 60 confirmed cases there.

Crozier's letter does not say where the sailors would be transferred to, but did note that there would be “challenges” in securing individual accommodation for the people onboard to safely quarantine themselves for 14 days.

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Meanwhile, acting US navy secretary Thomas Modly said the navy had been trying for several days to evacuate the sailors in Guam, but added the island did not have enough beds and that the Navy was negotiating with the local government to use hotels and set up tents.

“We don’t disagree with the [commanding officer] on that ship, and we’re doing it in a very methodical way because it’s not the same as a cruise ship ... that ship has armaments on it, it has aircraft on it,” he said on CNN.

Admiral John Aquilino, head of the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet, also told reporters that they had planned to remove some sailors off the ship, test and quarantine them, disinfect the ship and then rotate them with those on the carrier.

He also said that there would be some sailors in quarantine and isolation on the vessel.

On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, however, it was not time to get the sailors off the carrier, adding he had "not had a chance to read that letter ... in detail."

Speaking to CBS News on Tuesday, he claimed that none of the sailors were "seriously ill."

"At this point in time, we are trying to make sure that we contain the virus, that we deploy testing kits, and we get a good assessment of how much of the crew is infected," Esper said. "And then, of course, taking other measures to ensure that we can get the carrier up and ready again to continue its mission."

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