One-third of sailors on board of French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is positive to COVID-19
668 out of nearly 2,000 sailors on board France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle are infected with COVID-19.
The aircraft carrier returned to the French port of Toulon 10 days early from its Atlantic deployment after some sailors showed symptoms.
An escorting frigate and the carrier’s pilots are also in quarantine.
Twenty sailors are in hospital, one is in intensive care.
A Dutch Navy submarine, MS Dolfijn, has also returned to its Den Helder base two weeks early because of a COVID-19 outbreak on board. Eight of the 58 crew members tested positive.
Aircraft carriers are the prime tool of global military presence in the sea and the COVID-19 pandemic is proving hugely problematic for the Armed Forces around the world.
The number of carriers available is limited.
Earlier this month over 600 COVID-19 cases were confirmed aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, one of two key US carriers in the western Pacific.
