U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt coronavirus outbreak much larger, but mostly asymptomatic

The Navy’s coronavirus testing of the entire crew of the U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt is now nearly complete. Of the ship’s 4,800-member crew, more than 600 sailors have tested positive for the virus. However, of those 600, 60% have not shown any symptoms associated with the illness.

The virus’s numbers aboard the Roosevelt continue to raise questions about the true spread rate of the illness, as opposed to the numbers that testing in the United States, and around the world, are capturing.

The proportion of people who are asymptomatic carriers of the virus remains unknown, but the Theodore Roosevelt’s figure is higher than the 25%-50% range that Dr. Fauci put forward in early April.

The numbers from the Naval ship provide data on the epidemiologically underrepresented group that is the younger, largely healthy population.

This week, one sailor infected while aboard the ship died, and five remain hospitalized.