US orders 60-day freeze on all overseas troop movements amid coronavirus lockdown

The United States Department of Defence on March 25 issued an order for all its uniformed and civilian personnel and their sponsored family overseas to stop the movement for 60 days in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. According to a release by the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper enacted a 60-day stop movement order for all DoD staff and their family members overseas. 

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The release said, "Building upon previously enacted movement restrictions governing foreign travel, permanent change of station moves, temporary duty and personal leave, this stop movement order will also impact exercises, deployments, redeployments, and other global force management activities. Approximately 90,000 Service Members slated to deploy or redeploy over the next 60 days will likely be impacted by this stop movement order."

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The release further suggests that within the order are mechanisms by which exceptions can be granted like travel by patients or medical providers, scheduled deployments/redeployments of U.S. navy vessels, individuals who have already initiated travel, etc. The release also stated that the order will not impact the withdrawal of force from Afghanistan, which is scheduled to be complete within 135 days following the signed agreement in Doha.

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Coronavirus outbreak

COVID-19 has claimed more than 21,200 lives across the world and has infected nearly 4,71,000 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China was the most affected country until last week, however, Italy and Spain have surpassed it to record the most number of deaths anywhere in the world due to COVID-19. The virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally. 

France and the United States have also joined the list of countries that have recorded more than 1,000 deaths due to Coronavirus. Health experts believe that the hotspot could soon shift to the United States, where 1,032 people have died so far, out of the 68,489 confirmed cases that the country has recorded since January 2020.

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Lead Image Credit: AP