US Forces in Iraq And Afghanistan In Quarantine For Coronavirus

No U.S. forces will move into U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility — a region that includes the war zones in Iraq or Afghanistan — under a 14-day “stop movement” order issued  by the U.S. military command.

Ariana News Agency- 

And that’s not all. Any troops slated to deploy to CENTCOM’s AOR must first stay in quarantine for 14 days “regardless of where they are coming from,” U.S. Central Command said in its statement, “so that [deploying forces] will be cleared for duty upon arrival as a prudent precaution to maintain critical combat and combat support functions.”

This means outbound personnel already in Iraq and Afghanistan “will be temporarily held on station while their replacements are quarantined” for the two-week period prior to their eventual arrival.

“The goal is to ensure that units and personnel who arrive in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility are ready for tasking on arrival, and to ensure that we are not quarantining personnel at locations that will be challenged to support,” CENTCOM’s Capt. William Urban told Defense One.

Many troops heading to and from the Middle East pass through the area of responsibility of European Command, which is itself dealing with the pandemic. About 2,600 personnel are now in “self-isolation as a precaution due to travel or other reasons,” the Defense Department said in a statement Friday.

“These individuals are not necessarily sick, but may have been exposed and are doing their due diligence following health preventative measures.” To date, 35 EUCOM personnel have so far tested positive for COVID-19.