Undergo Anti-piracy Operation, Hundreds Of South Korean Destroyer Crew Infected With COVID-19 In Africa

Ilustrasi Kapal Perusak ROKS Munmu the Great (DDH 976). (Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Rebecca J. Moat)

JAKARTA - South Korean authorities are preparing to evacuate hundreds of their soldiers from the destroyer ROKS Munmu the Great (DDH 976), which was following an anti-piracy operation off Africa's high seas following the COVID-19 outbreak.

Citing Yonhap news agency, Monday, July 19, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that 247 of the 310 sailors of the Cheonghae unit had tested positive for COVID-19.

The unit first reported six cases of COVID-19 last week, which led to virus tests being carried out on the entire crew. Most of the sailors were isolated aboard the ROKS Munmu the Great (DDH 976). Meanwhile, 16 other sailors were sent to hospital for treatment.

All warship crews are expected to return home on Tuesday, July 20 local time, after the South Korean government decided to send two transport planes to pick them up.

Meanwhile, the destroyer, part of an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Hormuz, will be piloted back to its base in South Korea by a team of substitute sailors.

The outbreak is the most serious since the military reported its first COVID-19 case in February last year, amid growing criticism of the South Korean armed forces' response to the illness in their troops.

No one in the unit was vaccinated because they had left South Korea before the country started its COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

"We will review and complete military guidelines on troop management abroad, including how to respond to infectious diseases," a Defense Ministry official was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

The infections appear to have started after the ship docked at an African port in late June to load supplies, Yonhap said. A sailor shows symptoms of a cold, the day after the destroyer left port. He was not tested for COVID-19 and is not quarantined.

After a dozen other soldiers developed similar symptoms about a week later, authorities tested for COVID-19 with a rapid test kit instead of the more accurate PCR test, all of which were negative. Only when six samples were sent for PCR tests were the first cases confirmed, according to officials.

Separately, South Korea's Ministry of Defense said about 73 percent of the approximately 1,300 Ginseng State troops serving overseas missions had received the COVID-19 vaccination.