U.S. European Command has announced that the rest of an Arctic military exercise called Exercise Cold Response 20, with about 15,000 service members from 10 countries including the United States, has been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
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The exercises began March 2 and were to continue until March 18. The The command Wednesday said in a statement that the decision was “being made in response to the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 and to protect the health and safety of all participants and local population.”
The command added “health of our force continues to be a top priority and we are committed to maintaining mission readiness.”