031420-N-VA840-0005

SOUTH CHINA SEA – (March 14, 2020) Members of the Navy’s preventative medicine team Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Pavlicek, and Hospital Corpsman Gian Molina, both assigned to Navy Environmental Preventative Medicine Unit Six, test samples in a BioFire Film Array, which will test for nearly 30 different diseases, aboard the U.S. 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19). To date, no cases of COVID-19 have been detected aboard any 7th Fleet U.S. Navy vessels, but if a case were to arise, ships have isolation plans in place to contain the infection. As the U.S. Navy's largest forward-deployed fleet, 7th Fleet operates roughly 50-70 ships and submarines and 140 aircraft with approximately 20,000 Sailors.