INDIA: Amid the outbreak of corona virus cases in India, 21 sailors of the Indian Navy in Mumbai have been tested positive for coronavirus out of 25 personnel . The sailors have been quarantined at a naval hospital in the city. This is the first set of COVID-19 cases being reported in the Navy. The number of infected Navy personnel could go up as many test results are awaited. A massive operation to trace people who may have come in contact with the sailors is on.
Earlier this month, eight corona virus cases had been reported in the Indian Army.
After the cases were detected, the entire block was immediately put under quarantine as the containment zone, the Navy said in a statement this morning. It has made it clear that no officer or sailor serving on board any warship or submarine has been infected.
All 21 sailors reside in the accommodation at INS Angre, a shore-based depot that provides logistical and administrative support to naval operations of the Western Naval Command. Most of the cases are asymptomatic – cases that do not show symptoms of the infection – and have been traced to a sailor who was tested positive on April 7.
In France, 1,081 crew members onboard the French Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its support ships have tested positive for COVID-19. 660 crew members of the US Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, now docked in Guam in the Pacific, have tested positive for the virus that has infected over 21.71 lakh people across the globe and killed over 1.46 lakh.
India has reported over 14,000 cases and 480 deaths.