Seven medical personnel have been diagnosed with coronavirus on board a hospital ship sent to Los Angeles to help fight the pandemic, the US Navy announced on Tuesday. The USNS Mercy, which has a thousand beds, arrived at the Californian port in late March. Its mission is to receive not sick patients from Covid-19, but those suffering from other pathologies or injuries, in order to increase the reception capacities of local hospitals.
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Two of the ship's seven caregivers who contracted the coronavirus had " minimal contact " with patients before being screened, said Rochelle Rieger, spokesperson for the US Third Fleet. " We have landed them and they are currently in solitary confinement ," she said. No cases of contamination were identified among the patients of the hospital ship and the two caregivers in question wore full protective equipment (mask, gloves, gown) when they came into contact with the patients on board.
" As an additional precaution, " about 120 crew members who have been in contact with their sick comrades " are currently in quarantine on land, " added Rochelle Rieger. About 272 meters long, the USNS Mercy, a converted oil tanker, has 15 hospital wards and a capacity of 5,000 blood transfusion bags. He saw only twenty patients on Tuesday.