An outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt began
in late March infecting more than 580 sailors. Amid this, the ship’s commander
Capt. Brett E Crozier was fired for distributing a letter urging faster action
to protect his sailors, leaving the Navy into a leadership crisis.
The carrier has been docked in the US territory for
over a week as the 4,865-person crew is tested for the virus and moved ashore.
However, what has made locals nervous is that many sailors, who have tested
negative, are isolating in the island’s hotels and they do not exactly know
where they are being put.
“Being negative today doesn’t mean that they won’t
be in a week or so. The decision to house them in the middle of our community
is playing a game of chance with the health of our people,” a group of locals,
who have urged Guam Governor Lourdes Leon Guerrero to reconsider allowing the
sailors to stay in hotels, said in a statement.
“Our people are getting slapped in the face,” said
Hope Cristobal, one of the residents of Guam, who thinks officials are making
promises about safety but are unable to keep up. Cristobal lives less than a
quarter-mile from hotels in Tumon, a district located in the municipality of
Tamuning which is the center of Guam's tourist industry. “We don’t know exactly
where they’re being housed,” she added.
According to reports, Mary Rhodes, president of the
Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association, declined to disclose the names of the
hotels where the Navy personnel have been housed.
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