USS Kidd: Number of coronavirus cases from second warship outbreak nears 100 as Navy restricts information on pandemic
CNNCNN — Nearly 100 sailors from the US Navy destroyer USS Kidd have tested positive for coronavirus, two US defense officials told CNN Friday. The ship, which is currently in port in San Diego, was the second US warship to be struck by an outbreak of the pandemic after the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier. The Navy on Friday stopped providing official daily figures about the number of cases on the Kidd and Theodore Roosevelt, saying that it “will only report significant changes on these vessels and new cases on any other deployed vessels.” On Thursday night, a Navy statement said that official number of active coronavirus cases on the Kidd was 78. Asked about the new policy, chief Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman told reporters at the Pentagon “we wanted to get out of the pattern of providing a daily tracker of minor changes.” “We’ve now reached a point with both of those ships, particularly with the, where we’ve gone through, the entire crew’s been off, the entire crew’s been tested, we have the results, the ship has been cleaned, the crew is now returning to the ship.