PARIS / BERLIN / LONDON – Military forces throughout Europe have escalated operations and enforced stringent regulations on personnel to try to stop the spread of coronaviruses, which often live and work in close quarters. They are vulnerable to infection.

Preventing the spread of the virus among military personnel is critical to both national security as specialist military, navy and airforce units are being drafted in many countries to help governments combat the virus.

For example, Germany mobilized 15,000 troops to help local troops cope with the crisis, while Poland activated thousands of troops to patrol the streets under lockdown, protect hospitals and support border controls.

Incidents aboard the American aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt have exposed the risk of the disease spreading rapidly among personnel. The nuclear-powered vessel with 5,000 crew is now docked in the US territory of Guam, so that all can be tested.

The US Navy has relieved the captain of its command ship after writing a letter marking concerns about the lack of appropriate measures to prevent the highly contagious disease.

In France, Italy, and Spain, among the nations most affected by the outbreak, military operations have been halted or in some cases suspended.

Germany has changed the rules, with no roll-calls or soldiers’ mustard and leaving some staff, while the Turkish armed forces enforce social disturbances in the mess room and dormitory, among other measures.

On Sunday Turkey said it was limiting military movements in Syria as cases of coronavirus sprung up.

“We have had to cancel non-urgent maritime missions and deployments or modify our scope,” said French Army Command spokesman Colonel Frederick Barbry. Operational capacity “has not yet been affected.”

Barbieri said that French naval ships in the Hormuz Strait are not stopping at regional ports other than Abu Dhabi and air operations are being affected.

In eastern France, 600 military personnel have contracted the virus, the defense minister said on Friday, while four soldiers serving in West Africa with a barrage operation against Islamic militants are also infected.

Malcolm Chalmers, deputy-director of the think tank Royal United Services Institute, said, “The crisis will not only affect the resources available for defense and security but also how those resources are distributed.”

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Military personnel testing is important, but it is unclear how widespread it is. Britain, France, and Turkey refused to say how many military personnel had been tested COVID-19, or caused coronary viruses.

The Italian Ministry of Defense would only provide information about the officers, saying that Chief of Staff Salvatore Farina and a dozen others had tested positive. A lieutenant-colonel is killed.

In Spain, which ranks second after the United States for infection numbers at more than 130,000, the Ministry of Defense said 230 personnel had tested positive, while some 3,000 military personnel are in self-isolation.

Spain’s chief of defense staff, Air Force General Miguel विलngel Villaroya, said no naval operation had been affected by the virus, but the replacement of the serving staff was interrupted with the EU’s Atalanta operation of the Horn of Africa.

“We had to suspend and bring back the staff who were to go on a mission, because we had found the virus-infected person,” he said in a news conference.

A spokesman for the German Ministry of Defense said that about 250 soldiers were infected, with fewer than 10 hospitalized.

A handful of them are soldiers working with a NATO mission in Lithuania, where they act as a deterrent against Russian intervention. A military spokesman said the ceasefire was suspended due to the coronavirus, even though the main purpose of the mission remained in place.

German troops heading to Afghanistan are being held for 14 days of the first self-isolation, while four Italian soldiers stationed in Kabul tested positive upon arrival. Of the 800 Italian troops stationed in Iraq, 200 are returning home.

But as infection may peak in Europe, one of the main concerns is that military personnel are forced to ensure that the viruses themselves are not infected.

The British authorities have been criticized for the shortcomings in the test, with around 65,000 tested as of 2 April among a population of 66 million. The Health Secretary has promised 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month.

Military units are already helping in the logistics and distribution of medical devices across the country, but there is no clarity on how many tests have been conducted.

“If the military is widely employed, about 20 percent of them will have it,” said Jack Watling, a senior fellow focused on land forces at RUSI. “And if they start deploying military to sites, they have to use the test to make sure they are not spreading the virus.”