NORFOLK, Va. — Former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus says the Navy needs to take extreme steps to fight COVID-19.
In the wake of the outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Mabus is calling for all sailors to be removed from the 297 ships in the fleet, for those sailors to be quarantined and tested, and for those ships to be sanitized.
With the USS Theodore Roosevelt now up to 678 confirmed cases of COVID-19, Mabus says it's time for the Navy to take drastic action.
"If we're going to keep a Navy that is completely prepared, we're going to have to do a much better job, number one, of getting sailors off their ship, sanitizing the ship, testing them, testing every one of them, quarantining the and then putting them back on the ship," he said.
Mabus, who served as Secretary of the Navy from 2009 until 2017, is calling for what could be viewed as a temporary but complete stand-down of the entire Navy.
"It's really the only way I can think of that we keep from having an issue far, far into the future," he said. "Because, if we don't do something like this, Navy ships are so susceptible to spreading of this virus. If one person is infected, because of the close quarters, because of people literally on top of each other, we're going to have readiness challenges far, far into the future."
Senate Armed Service Committee member Tim Kaine of Virginia isn't going as far as Mabus, but he does agree much more robust testing of the nation's 1.3 million active-duty military members is needed.
"I am just very worried that there is not clear messaging and leadership and protocols at the top," he said."And I don't know if the answer is, test everybody, and if so how often. Whether it is test everybody 30 days before deployment and quarantine them so they don't get sick on deployment, or, test people if they show two of the following symptoms. But, what I'm really struck by is there is not a national standard on his and there isn't a D.o.D. standard."
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said he wants to get from the current 8,700 tests a day to 60,000 tests a day within 45 days.