The littoral combat ship Milwaukee is sitting tight at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Friday due to a portion of the crew testing positive for COVID-19.
“The crew is 100 percent immunized and all COVID-19 positive Sailors are isolated onboard and away from crew members,” U.S. 4th Fleet said in a statement. “A portion of those infected have exhibited mild symptoms. The vaccine continues to demonstrate effectiveness against serious illness.”
The statement did not specify the number of infected sailors, and the precise variant has not been determined, but the ship is following U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for contact tracing and testing while following “an aggressive mitigation strategy.”
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Milwaukee deployed to 4th Fleet waters on Dec. 14 and is at Gitmo for a scheduled port visit.
It remains unclear when the ship will return to sea.
Correction: due to erroneous information provided by the Navy, an earlier version of this story misstated the date that Milwaukee arrived in U.S. 4th Fleet waters. The ship arrived in the command’s waters on Dec. 14.
Geoff is the managing editor of Military Times, but he still loves writing stories. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan extensively and was a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. He welcomes any and all kinds of tips at geoffz@militarytimes.com.
