The French army has launched an unprecedented landing and placement in medical isolation of 1,900 sailors, after the nuclear aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle docked in Toulon on Sunday, early return due to coronavirus on board. The docking went off without a hitch, AFP Maritime Prefecture of the Mediterranean told AFP on Sunday mid-afternoon. It took place 10 days ahead of the mission end date initially planned.
A heavy logistics operation to disembark the entire crew is now underway, according to Christine Ribbe, spokesman for this prefecture. The parade of buses and other means of transport will be "clocked, timed", with one objective: to respect a "tempo to prevent sailors from crossing paths", and thus reduce the risk of new contamination.
"Everyone will be tested"
So far on board, "according to my latest information, there was no worsening" of the health of the 50 soldiers tested positive for coronavirus, she added. "Everyone will be tested", and the soldiers, some 1,700 people who served on the Charles-de-Gaulle and more than 200 of the frigate that accompanied him, will be confined for two weeks' medical isolation, without contact with their family, "on military rights of the Var and the region".
The soldiers will be evacuated preferably by "nautical means" as well as by "bus, trucks (and other) vehicles" to "avoid any contact of the sailors with the outside". Seafarers tested positive, as well as those who show symptoms will be "transferred to dedicated places", "in agreement the health services of the armies and the military hospital (Toulon) of Sainte-Anne," added Christine Ribbe. It is only after sanitary quarantine and tests that the crews of Charles-de-Gaulle, which cruised in the Atlantic, will be able to reach their homes.
New device
"Our objective is to protect all our sailors but also their families and the French by deploying an unprecedented welcome system that we want to be the most human, the most coordinated, the most concerted but also the most effective", according to the door - word of the maritime prefecture. In addition to the isolation of the military, the army plans to disinfect all buildings and aircraft, an unprecedented operation, "to allow them to recover their full operational capacity as soon as possible," according to the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
This “bio-cleaning” operation will start on Tuesday, for a duration that was not specified on Sunday by the maritime prefecture. The announcement of the early return to France of Charles-de-Gaulle was made Wednesday, after the discovery on board of suspected cases. The origin of the contamination of the carrier strike group is not yet known. He has not been in contact with an outside element since a stopover in Brest on March 15. It therefore took three weeks between this and the appearance of the first cases, beyond the fortnight usually used to prevent contagion.
On mission since January 21
Friday, the spokesman of the French Navy, Captain Eric Lavault, assured that the precautionary measures applicable at the time to the whole of the country had been respected. The ship had been on a mission since January 21 and had spent several weeks in the Mediterranean as part of Operation Chammal, the French component of the international anti-jihadist operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria.
He then cruised in the North Sea and in the Atlantic for "operations to secure and defend European maritime approaches". On this mission of almost three months, "the objectives have been achieved," assured the ministry. The cabinet of the Minister of the Armies Florence Parly confirmed that the reduction of duration of the mission of Charles-de-Gaulle posed no strategic or operational problem.
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