US Marine Corps Halts 2,500-Troop Deployment to Australia Amid COVID-19 Travel Ban

Concerns over the COVID-19 novel coronavirus infiltrating the ranks of US troops have resulted in a delay to the deployment of some 2,500 Marines to Australia as part of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF-D) 2020.

Marine Corps Forces Pacific commander Lt. Gen. Lewis Craparotta announced Monday that this year’s six-month rotation of US Marines to Australia would not be taking place in April due to a newly initiated prohibition on overseas travel by the US Department of Defense. 

According to US Marine Corps Forces Pacific officials, the option still remains for the deployment to occur later in the year. Additionally, equipment and other various supplies will still be delivered to Australia – without any service members accompanying the drop. 

Sputnik reported last week that US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper had announced the enactment of a 60-day stop movement order for “all DoD uniformed and civilian personnel and their sponsored family members overseas.” 

According to the Times, the order will impact close to 90,000 troops. 

At the time, the department reported that at least 435 affiliated service members and civilians had been infected with COVID-19. 

As of this article’s publication, John Hopkins University’s COVID-19 map reports that there have been a total of 850,583 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the world and 41,654 deaths from the virus. However, at least 177,857 recoveries from the contagious disease have been registered around the world. 

Sourse: sputniknews.com