- The Ministry of the Armed Forces announced on Wednesday the appearance of 40 suspected cases and the immediate dispatch of a team from the Armed Forces Health Service.
- Information confirmed (and refined) Friday with the publication of an official press release.
- Part of the ship was isolated to avoid further contagion, while the "Charles de Gaulle" is now on its way to Toulon.
The doubt was small, it is now dismissed. The French army confirmed Friday the presence of 50 cases of Covid-19 infection on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and is now working to determine the origin of the contamination.
The Ministry of the Armed Forces announced on Wednesday the appearance of 40 suspected cases and the immediate dispatch of a team from the Armed Forces Health Service (SSA) aboard the nuclear building, which shortened its mission and made its way to Toulon (south -est of France) where it is expected in a few days.
Confirmation of # Covid19 cases on board the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier.
▶ ️ The tests carried out confirm fifty positive cases.
▶ ️ 3 sailors evacuated, as a preventive measure, by plane, and transferred to a hospital in #France. pic.twitter.com/CoV74lR8jB
"The results of the 66 tests carried out concluded that there were 50 cases of Covid-19 on board the Charles de Gaulle ," he confirmed in a statement on Friday. No deterioration in the state of health of the sailors on board has been observed at the present time.
The question of the origin of the contamination remains unknown. The ship, currently in Portugal, has not been in contact with any outside element since March 15. Three weeks therefore elapsed between this stopover and the identification of the first cases, which questions the period of 14 days usually mentioned by scientists as a contamination threshold.
"The objective is to identify the contamination circuit and support the protocol to limit the spread of the virus," added the Ministry of the Armed Forces, adding that the SSA team was composed of two epidemiologists, a biosafety expert and a doctor in charge of the samples. The latter left the ship on Wednesday to analyze the samples.
Wearing of the mask generalized to the whole crew
The evacuated sailors were transferred to the Army Training Hospital (HIA) Sainte-Anne, in Toulon to "preserve the medical capabilities" of the vessel, added the ministry. The wearing of the mask, initially planned for those who showed symptoms of the disease, was generalized to the entire crew.
In addition to the disinfection of the handrails and door handles on the ship, the number of meetings and participants has been reduced. A section of the front of the building, with a capacity of 127 people, was insulated to accommodate the confined personnel. The area was depressed, using methods already used by the Tonnerre helicopter carrier when it evacuated patients from Corsica in late March.
The aircraft carrier engaged in Operation Chammal
The aircraft carrier left France on January 21 and spent several weeks in the Mediterranean as part of Operation Chammal, the French component of the international operation "Inherent Resolve" in Iraq and Syria. He had been cruising in the Atlantic for some time. But the cabinet of Minister Florence Parly insists that the decision to recall the ship to Toulon poses no strategic or operational problem.
The Minister has repeatedly stated that the pandemic does not prevent the armed forces from fulfilling their missions or actively participating in the fight against the disease under the umbrella of Operation Resilience in France.
This includes medical evacuations of patients and caregivers, the opening of a field hospital equipped with 30 intensive care beds in Mulhouse as well as securing and conveying medical equipment and sending reinforcements in addition -sea.
600 confirmed cases in the military
However, the contamination figures are not detailed within the armed forces. The last estimate dates from Saturday, when Florence Parly had mentioned some 600 cases (civil and military). No other estimate has been released since.
Four officers deployed in the Sahel as part of the anti-jihadist operation Barkhane are among the cases, the first made public among the forces projected in external operations. A civilian agent attached to the Defense Infrastructure Service has died.
The Covid-19 pandemic has already hit the US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Pacific. The event caused a major crisis. The captain of the ship was dismissed after requesting the immediate evacuation of his vessel, which was immobilized on the island of Guam. The secretary of the US Navy Thomas Modly, strongly criticized for the management of the crisis, had then to resign.
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