{"id":41664,"date":"2020-03-19T01:24:34","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T01:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/19\/coronavirus-cases-break-out-across-the-navy\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:40:59","slug":"coronavirus-cases-break-out-across-the-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2020\/03\/19\/coronavirus-cases-break-out-across-the-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus cases break out across the Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Military medical investigators are probing what officials say is the second confirmed coronavirus test tied to the crew of the amphibious warship Boxer, part of a proliferation of COVID-19 cases across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navy commands on Wednesday reported that a sailor at Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 48 in Florida tested positive for the respiratory disease, as did a civilian worker at the Naval Construction Battalion Center\u2019s Naval Exchange in Gulfport, Mississippi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The San Diego sailor\u2019s results came back on Wednesday, four days after another enlisted sailor from Boxer tested positive for COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no indication that the sailors were in close contact with each other, but a thorough contact investigation continues,\u201d U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Myers J. Vasquez told Navy Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boxer remains at Naval Base San Diego and is not at sea. Both sailors have been confined to their residences off base. Anyone who came into close contact with them also has been isolated and is self-monitoring for COVID-19 symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials told Navy Times that the latest positive case tied to the warship isn\u2019t believed to be linked to a coronavirus cluster <\/a>that blossomed inside the Training Support Center at Naval Base San Diego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That outbreak snared the first case from Boxer\u2019s crew. He\u2019s believed to have contracted COVID-19 from an instructor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third enlisted sailor from Naval Base Point Loma <\/a>who also was attending a course at the schoolhouse at Naval Base San Diego caught coronavirus, forcing Naval Education and Training Command to shutter a large number of classrooms there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But authorities told Navy Times that there\u2019s no evidence the two sailors from Boxer had close contact with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One was a blue shirt and the other a member of the Goat Locker. Although the chief briefly visited Boxer on March 16, he\u2019s not believed to have had close contact with any crew members and both sailors worked in different divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the patients recently took leave locally and the other returned from out of town.<\/p>\n\n\n\t