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MIAMI (WSVN) - The family of a South Florida U.S. Navy sailor is pleading for their loved one, who remains on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt, to be tested for the coronavirus after, they said, he began developing symptoms.
Barbara Wilborn’s son, Marquell Wilborn, is one of the 5,000 sailors deployed on board the vessel that has experienced a deadly outbreak of the virus.
“They have a crisis that they are not treating like a crisis,” she said. “He was exposed to a couple of people sleeping up over him and under him, and they both tested positive.”
Over the weekend, the Navy announced one of the 600 sailors with the virus had died. A total of 4,000 sailors have been evacuated and moved ashore.
The outbreak on the aircraft carrier has been in the national spotlight following the dismissal of the ship’s captain after his writing of a memo pleading for help was leaked to the press. Soon after, the acting Navy secretary resigned.
“Guam don’t want ’em, you don’t know what to do with them, send a mercy ship,” Wilborn said.
According to his family, Wilborn is one of the around 1,000 sailors who remain on board the vessel in Guam, and he is now showing symptoms.
“They’re already isolated together on a ship, which, to me, seems to be a Petri dish for germs and other things to fester,” Mica Ferguson, the sailor’s sister, said. “This tour should end. They should be on land. They should be at facilities, and they should all be checked out thoroughly.”
Karen Parrish’s son, Kevin Ammons, is also on the same ship as Wilborn’s son.
“I told him to stay prayed up and cleaned up,” Parrish said.
Ammons spoke to 7News last week while on a call with his parents.
“They told us to wash our hands, use hand sanitizer before, during and after whatever you do,” he said.
Ammons has tested negative for the virus, but Wilborn has yet to be tested, leaving the father and sailor’s family waiting in worry.
“She has two little ones, and every day they’re asking for their dad, and it’s like, ‘What if one day they ask for him, and it’s not, ‘Daddy’s going to call later!’ It’s, ‘Daddy can’t call,'” Carrie Wilborn, the sailor’s sister, said.
Wilborn is expected to be tested for COVID-19 on Wednesday by the ship’s medical staff.
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