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Effectiveness of a COVID-19 Preventive Sequestration Strategy: Deployment of the Aircraft Carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2022

Ross Mullinax ,
Allison Krug Open the ORCID record for Allison Krug [Opens in a new window] ,
Kyle Harvey ,
Christopher Wilde ,
Uchenna Nzegwu ,
Clifton Wilcox ,
Merrill Rice  and
Robert Lipsitz
Ross Mullinax
Affiliation:
US Naval Hospital Yokosuka, Japan Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Allison Krug*
Affiliation:
Artemis Biomedical Communications LLC, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
Kyle Harvey
Affiliation:
US Naval Hospital Yokosuka, Japan Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Christopher Wilde
Affiliation:
US Naval Hospital Yokosuka, Japan
Uchenna Nzegwu
Affiliation:
US Naval Hospital Yokosuka, Japan
Clifton Wilcox
Affiliation:
US Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Merrill Rice
Affiliation:
USS RONALD REAGAN (CVN-76)
Robert Lipsitz
Affiliation:
Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland, USA U.S. Forces Japan, Yokota, Japan
*
Corresponding author: Allison Krug, Email [email protected].
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Abstract

Objectives:

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a pre-deployment sequestration (PDS) protocol to prevent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) cases on board the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76).

Methods:

The USS Ronald Reagan includes a crew of approximately 3000 Sailors and an embarked Air Wing of 2000 personnel. The PDS was conducted in 3 waves of 14-day strict quarantines during the months of April and May 2020. Sailors were cleared to board the ship with 2 negative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR) tests at days 14 and 16. The ship was sanitized before Wave 1 boarding.

Results:

From March 1, 2020, through May 31, 2020, a total of 51 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases were detected. During the 3 waves of PDS, 28 Sailors were found to be positive on exit testing (14, 11, and 3, respectively); no cases were found among the Air Wing. During the first 90 days at sea, no SARS-CoV-2 cases were detected among any of the embarked personnel.

Conclusions:

Although resource-intensive, the PDS protocol implemented for USS Ronald Reagan resulted in a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-free ship during a global pandemic with unprecedented scope. Elements of this pandemic PDS protocol may be useful in other highly risk-averse environments with no tolerance for COVID-19 infections.

Keywords

SARS-CoV-2deploymentpreventioninfectionquarantinesequestration
Type
Brief Report
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 6 , December 2022 , pp. 2409 - 2411
Creative Commons
This is a work of the US Government and is not subject to copyright protection within the United States. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.
Copyright
© United States Navy, 2022.

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