The Plague Continues: 13 USS Theodore Roosevelt Sailors Test Positive Again For COVID-19

13 sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt who returned to the aircraft carrier have tested positive again for COVID-19 after recovering from the virus.

The crew began returning to the ship in April after spending a month either in quarantine or isolation in Guam. Despite testing negative for COVID-19 twice, however, the sailors started showing symptoms of the illness in early May, said Politico.

The outbreak erupted when five servicemen developed flu-like symptoms last week (May 14). As protocol, they were immediately removed from the carrier and placed in quarantine, Navy spokesman Cmdr. Myers Vasquez said in a statement, through Stars and Stripes.

A total of 18 sailors who had interacted with the five were likewise taken off the USS Roosevelt and retested for the virus. Myers added that the relapse of the crew came after they all met “rigorous recovery criteria” that exceeded “all [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines,” pointed the outlet.

Since then, the number of sailors who tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time rose to 13.

“We are committed to taking every measure possible to protect the health of our force,” Vasquez told Business Insider, adding that the Navy will continue to “aggressively respond” to the virus through the latest guidelines and best practices outlined by health experts.

By Sunday, another sailor aboard the carrier contracted a different disease.

“In the course of the ship's rigorous infection surveillance, a single active case of TB was identified and diagnosed. The individual has been removed from the ship, isolated, and will remain under the direct care of the naval health system until cleared by doctors,” Vasquez told Politico.

Navy officials on the other hand are perplexed as to why the sailors retested positive. The crew cleared all protocols required to re-board the ship: the sailors completed the mandatory 14-day quarantine and tested negative twice. Still, after being asymptomatic for almost three weeks, the 13 sailors experienced “expanded symptoms” like mild body pains and headaches.

These symptoms led officials to have them retake the COVID-19 test, which unfortunately came back positive for the second time, said ABC News, citing a statement from a defense official.

COVID-19-positive cases of the USS Theodore Roosevelt climbed to 1,102 by the end of April. The Navy meanwhile has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 2,191. As a whole, the military reported 5,472 cases and two deaths, including one sailor from the carrier, said Stars and Stripes.