Coronavirus outbreak sidelines ship whose crew is fully immunized, Navy says
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.
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