50 Sailors Aboard French Aircraft Carrier Test Positive for COVID-19

50 sailors aboard the French Navy carrier Charles de Gaulle have tested positive for COVID-19, the service said in a statement Friday. 

The French Navy announced Wednesday that there were 40 suspected cases on board, and it dispatched a team of medical specialists to the ship to conduct testing and containment efforts. 66 individuals were tested and the kits were flown back to shore for laboratory analysis; the results showed 50 positive cases. 

Since Wednesday, the health condition of the sailors on board is unchanged. Three were flown back to Toulon as a precautionary measure, the French Navy said. 

In order to slow the spread of the disease on board the ship, the entire crew of the Charles de Gaulle is now required to wear face masks. Those with COVID-19 symptoms or with positive test results are confined to a separate area of the vessel. 

Separately, the number of confirmed positive cases aboard the U.S. Navy carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has risen to 416, with testing approximately 97 percent complete. The number is now high enough that Roosevelt accounts for about one out of every five COVID-19 cases in the U.S. military. 

The Roosevelt is currently alongside the pier in Guam, allowing most of her crew to disembark while the vessel is disinfected. One Roosevelt sailor who had tested positive for the disease was found unconscious on Thursday and was transferred to an intensive care unit at the U.S. Navy Hospital in Guam.