A
coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Milwaukee, whose entire crew was
"100% immunized," has forced the ship to remain in port after a
scheduled stop in Cuba barely one week into its deployment, the Navy
announced Friday.
An unspecified "portion" of the Milwaukee's
105-person crew is now isolated on board the ship at Naval Station
Guantánamo Bay, according to Cmdr. Kate Meadows, a spokeswoman for U.S.
Naval Forces Southern Command. The Navy does not disclose infection
counts "at the crew/unit level," she said in an email.
Some
of the personnel who tested positive for the virus have displayed mild
symptoms, Meadows said. Officials have not determined whether the highly
transmissible omicron variant - which has demonstrated an ability to
evade coronavirus vaccines, leading to a surge in breakthrough
infections - is responsible for the Milwaukee's outbreak.
It's
unclear how long the Milwaukee may be offline. Meadows said Saturday
that the ship's commanders are working with senior military leaders to
make that determination and that, in the meantime, they have imposed a
mask mandate for all personnel.
Navy officials said that the
deployment was expected to involve counternarcotics operations in the
Caribbean and Eastern Pacific and that the stop in Guantánamo was
expected to be a brief visit to refuel and stock up on provisions. The
ship arrived in Cuba on Dec. 20.
The Milwaukee deployed from its
home station in Mayport, Fla., on Dec. 14. In a news release announcing
the ship's departure, the Navy said that apart from the ship's crew, a
detachment of Coast Guard law enforcement personnel was on board, plus
an aviation unit responsible for operating embarked helicopters and
drones. It was not immediately clear whether the coronavirus outbreak
had affected any of those passengers.
Photographs of the ship's crew, distributed by the
Navy over the past month, show some personnel wearing masks while others
were not. Meadows said Saturday that face coverings now are required
for all, whether indoors or outside.
Navy vessels, where personnel
live in tight quarters while at sea, are particularly vulnerable to the
coronavirus. The U.S. military's first major coronavirus outbreak
occurred last year aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt,
sidelining the ship for several weeks in Guam after more than 1,000
personnel tested positive. The Roosevelt experienced another run of
infections earlier this year.
U.S. military personnel are required
to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, but tens of thousands of
troops have resisted those orders. Across the Navy, about 9,000 sailors
remained only partially vaccinated as of this week, according to data
maintained by the Pentagon.
Top Defense Department leaders are
evaluating whether to begin mandating booster shots, as well, with
public health experts saying an additional shot can help recharge waning
immunity and ward off severe disease and hospitalization. It's unclear
whether any of those who have tested positive aboard the Milwaukee had
received booster shots
Source
https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-outbreak-sidelines-ship-whose-165801568.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/12/24/uss-milwaukee-covid-outbreak/
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