Coronavirus found in 21 Indian navy sailors

At least 21 sailors of Indian navy had been tested positive for coronavirus, multiple media outlets reported, who are being treated a military health facility in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, 20 of these are from the shore-based logistics hub INS Angre, in Mumbai, headquarters of the Western Naval Command.

"A total of 21 serving personnel have been tested positive for Covid-19 within naval premises at Mumbai. This number includes 20 sailors of INS Angre, a shore establishment," the navy said in a statement.

According to the media, there has been no case of coronavirus on-board any of the ships and submarines of the Indian navy.

It said most of the people infected by the virus had come in contact with a sailor who had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 7.

“They all reside in the same accommodation block at INS Angre. All primary contacts were tested for Covid-19. Entire in-living block was immediately put under quarantine,” the statement said, adding that the INS Angre had been put under the total lockdown.

The latest development came as the number of coronavirus cases in India jumped to 14,425 with 488 deaths recorded so far.

Most sailors on US carrier are asymptomatic

AFP adds: Tests on the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, which was struck by an outbreak of COVID-19,  found that two-thirds of sailors who tested positive were asymptomatic, a top military official said Friday.

Nearly the entire crew was tested after the coronavirus outbreak forced the nuclear-powered carrier to dock in Guam. One crew member has died.

The outbreak on the Roosevelt has allowed the Pentagon to document the impact of the coronavirus on a large military population, Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman General John Hyten told reporters.

"We haven't really tested a whole population and we learn things from the Roosevelt about asymptomatic versus symptomatic," he said.

As of Friday morning, 94 percent of Roosevelt crew had been tested for COVID-19, with 660 positive cases and 3,920 negative.

"It's only 5,000 people, but it is 5,000 people of a certain demographic" that is younger and healthier than the general population, Hyten said.

Studies so far show asymptomatic patients to be between 20 and 50 percent of confirmed cases, according to Hyten, who also serves on the White House coronavirus task force.

"You look at our number. It's almost 60, 70 percent asymptomatic," he said.

Additionally, just over 10 percent of the positive cases had initially come back as negative in late March.

"What we learned is that those negative to positives always transitioned in the 14-day period" of quarantine recommended by health officials worldwide.

"A 14-day quarantine in individual or very small groups, followed by a test, will give us high confidence that we have a clean crew," he said.

The Pentagon, which has stopped all movement of troops around the world, will test almost all of its forces as soon as possible to help decide how to return to normal operations.