An Outbreak of Covid-19 on an Aircraft Carrier

Kasper, Matthew R.; Geibe, Jesse R.; Sears, Christine L.; Riegodedios, Asha J.; Luse, Tina; Von Thun, Annette M.; McGinnis, Michael B.; Olson, Niels; Houskamp, Daniel; Fenequito, Robert; Burgess, Timothy H.; Armstrong, Adam W.; DeLong, Gerald; Hawkins, Robert J.; Gillingham, Bruce L.

BACKGROUND: An outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) occurred on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a crew of 4779 personnel. METHODS: We obtained clinical and demographic data for all crew members, including results of testing by real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). All crew members were followed up for a minimum of 10 weeks, regardless of test results or the absence of symptoms. RESULTS: The crew was predominantly young (mean age, 27 years) and was in general good health, meeting U.S. Navy standards for sea duty. Over the course of the outbreak, 1271 crew members (26.6% of the crew) tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection by rRT-PCR testing, and more than 1000 infections were identified within 5 weeks after the first laboratory-confirmed infection. An additional 60 crew members had suspected Covid-19 (i.e., illness that met Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists clinical criteria for Covid-19 without a positive test result). Among the crew members with laboratory-confirmed infection, 76.9% (978 of 1271) had no symptoms at the time that they tested positive and 55.0% had symptoms develop at any time during the clinical course. Among the 1331 crew members with suspected or confirmed Covid-19, 23 (1.7%) were hospitalized, 4 (0.3%) received intensive care, and 1 died. Crew members who worked in confined spaces appeared more likely to become infected. CONCLUSIONS: SARS-CoV-2 spread quickly among the crew of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt. Transmission was facilitated by close-quarters conditions and by asymptomatic and presymptomatic infected crew members. Nearly half of those who tested positive for the virus never had symptoms.