Virus found in Canadian troops in Latvia

OTTAWA • The Canadian Armed Forces is dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak in Latvia, where an unspecified number of troops have tested positive for the illness while guarding against Russian aggression in the region.

The Department of National Defence confirmed on Tuesday that military personnel at Camp Adazi near the Latvian capital of Riga have contracted COVID-19, though it would not provide specific numbers.

“The Canadian Armed Forces have some members deployed on Operation Reassurance in Latvia (who) have tested positive,” Defence Department spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier said in a statement. “For operational security reasons, specific numbers ... will not be released.”

Canada has 540 soldiers in Latvia, where the Canadian military has been leading a NATO battle group that includes troops from nine other countries as a check against Russian incursions into eastern Europe and the Baltics.

Media reports have indicated troops from some of those other countries have also tested positive and that NATO and Latvian officials were scrambling to contain the outbreak.

Britain, Germany and the U.S. are leading similar battle groups in neighbouring Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, all of which were established after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

The Canadian Armed Forces reported last week that 676 military members had tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in March, including 15 who still had the disease. It was not clear whether any of the cases in Latvia were included in that number.

The infections in Latvia follow an outbreak among Canadian military personnel in Kuwait in December. Canada has hundreds of troops in the Middle East participating in the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

All infected troops in Latvia are in isolation, Le Bouthillier said, while cont a c t - t r a c i n g e ff o r t s a r e underway to limit the spread of the disease.

Latvia has seen a surge in t he number of new COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, with more than 1,800 reported on Dec. 31, the highest daily total so far. More than 500 new infections were reported on Sunday.