Florence Parly calls into question an “excessive confidence” on the part of the command of the ship. This Monday, the Minister of the Armed Forces, delivered to the Defense Committee of the National Assembly the conclusions of two investigations into the contamination of two thirds of the crew of the aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle". It first claims that the Covid-19 was introduced for the first time on board the aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, before a stopover in Brest in mid-March, where it was reintroduced on board.
The Minister thus returned to the chronology of contamination: after a stopover by the French aircraft carrier from February 21 to 26 at the port of Limassol, in Cyprus, "air movements brought to it personnel in reinforcement, relief or returning on board "," from Cyprus, Sicily, the Balearic Islands, mainland Spain and Portugal ", detailed Florence Parly.
"It was during one of these movements" in the Mediterranean, "after Cyprus and before the stopover in Brest (from March 13 to 16), that the investigation placed the first introductions of the virus on board", she underlined, insisting: "The stopover in Brest is therefore not the cause of the first introduction of the virus on board. "
A concert authorized on board
However, the "reintroduction" of the virus in Brest was a "factor in accelerating its spread", according to the survey, even if "measures of distancing were taken following the stopover in Brest", and "Have considerably slowed the spread of the virus among the crew," said the minister. "The downside is that they have weighed heavily on the bonds of command and the morale of the crew," she also said.
Thus, she detailed, "at the end of the fortnight imposed on board and in the absence of any identified case, on March 30, the command took the decision to relax the very strict distancing measures", in particular by reestablishing briefings and authorizing a concert on board on March 30. "This decision was caused on the one hand because of the lower morale of the crew and on the other hand, no doubt, by an excess of confidence of the command as well as of its medical service in the control of the situation" , commented Florence Parly. However, according to the investigation, "the command has always taken care of the health of its crew" and "has constantly taken care to prevent this risk on the basis of the information at its disposal," insisted the minister, affirming that the conclusions of the investigations certainly emphasized that "mistakes" had been made but "no fault".
A sailor still hospitalized
Almost two-thirds of the aircraft carrier's crew, 1,046 out of 1,760 sailors, tested positive on their return to France in mid-April, following a mission cut short by the epidemic on board.
T he last week the French Navy announced that 98% of them are now cured and have left the hospital or their confinement in a military compound. "With the exception of a sailor still hospitalized after leaving intensive care," said Florence Parly on Monday.
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Two investigations, one epidemiological and the other of command, were carried out in order to shed light on the causes and the management of this massive contamination which forced the "Charles de Gaulle" to anticipate his return from mission of a ten days, mid-April.
