The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), front, Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52), left, and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG 113) transit the Pacific Ocean Jan. 15, 2021.


WASHINGTON — Commanders of the USS Roosevelt carrier did not enforce social distancing and withdrew sailors too early from quarantine last year, aggravating an outbreak of Covid-19 among the ship's crew, consistent with a report from a Pentagon watchdog.

The Roosevelt leadership also "allowed social affair areas to stay 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 military officer said during a report released Monday.

The military officer found that the Navy had appropriate plans in situ to counter a possible outbreak of an communicable disease , but the leadership of the Roosevelt didn't fully implement the specified 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, consistent with previous statements by the Department of Defense . One crewman died.

The commander of the carrier , Capt. Brett Crozier, had raised the alarm about the outbreak among his crew, sending a strongly worded letter to Navy leaders that outlined his concerns about the spread of the virus on the ship. The letter leaked to the media and grabbed  headlines.

Crozier was relieved of his command after the letter leaked, though he kept his rank.

The then-acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly said at the time that Crozier was faraway from  his post because he allegedly sent the letter over "non-secure unclassified email" to a "broad array of people" instead of up the chain of command.

As a basis for the findings in Monday's report, the military officer cited a Navy command investigation of the Covid spread on board the Roosevelt. consistent with the inspector general's report, "the ineffective implementation of social distancing and therefore the premature release of sailors from quarantine were primary causes of increased infection onboard the ship."

The report, citing the office of the Chief of Naval Operations, also said that four out of 5 major Navy commands had not conducted biennial pandemic influenza and communicable disease exercises as needed by Navy instructions.

But the military officer said the Navy has sought to find out lessons from the Roosevelt episode and updated its guidance on Covid. The new messages have "helped mitigate further outbreaks, the report said.

The Navy "has continued to deploy warships and submarines without additional widespread outbreaks that might otherwise cripple warships and interrupt their support to the combatant commanders," it said.

The report quoted a recent U.S. Navy handbook on the coronavirus, which states, "It is critical to understand the foremost effective means of preventing the spread of Covid-19 is to practice simple public health mitigation measures."

The military officer recommended that the deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and strategy and therefore the surgeon general of the Navy update policy on pandemic influenza and communicable disease , and include lessons learned from another outbreak last year aboard a destroyer, the USS Kidd. The report also recommended the Navy draft an idea of action to make sure it administered biennial exercises on pandemic influenza and infectious diseases.