Fair Winds and Following Seas, Chief.
US Navy identifies aircraft carrier sailor who died of coronavirus
The U.S. Navy has now identified the sailor who contracted coronavirus aboard aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and passed away on Monday.
Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., 41, died April 13 at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam after four days in the intensive care unit, the Navy said in a statement on Thursday.
Thacker was admitted to the ICU on April 9, after being found unresponsive that morning. CPR was administered by both fellow sailors and a medical team before the transfer to ICU.
He had tested positive for the virus on March 30, and was removed from the ship after the positive diagnosis. He was placed in quarantine on Naval Base Guam with four other sailors from the ship where he received twice-daily medical checks.
At least 655 sailors aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt have now tested positive for coronavirus as of new reports on Thursday. Six of those sailors are hospitalized, and one is in the ICU.
During an interview with the Today Show on Thursday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that approximately 350 of Roosevelt’s coronavirus cases are asymptomatic, which “has revealed a new dynamic of this virus.”