Navy deploys medical teams aboard ships at sea to batch-test for coronavirus

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Navy has taken coronavirus testing directly to ships at sea by deploying medical teams equipped with test kits to combat the spreading virus, according to the 7th Fleet.

Teams of preventive medicine and medical research specialists were sent March 14 to the amphibious assault ship USS America, stationed at Sasebo Naval Base, Japan; the USS Blue Ridge, the 7th Fleet flagship based at Yokosuka; and the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, according to the 7th Fleet Public Affairs Office on Saturday. The Roosevelt, homeported in California, was in the western Pacific when the teams deployed, according to navy.mil.

The teams are batch testing sailors with flu-like symptoms aboard those vessels rather than sending the samples ashore for testing, according to the 7th Fleet. Batch testing means one test is done simultaneously on multiple specimens.

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