OREANDA-NEWS. The outbreak of the new coronavirus is testing NATO for strength, but the alliance retains the ability to carry out its missions. This was announced on Thursday by Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance Jens Stoltenberg, presenting his annual report on the status of NATO for 2019.

“A coronavirus has been detected in some of our employees, some exercises have been modified or canceled. But this does not affect NATO’s ability to conduct its operations”, he said. “The pandemic is testing NATO for strength, but we will defeat it”. The Secretary General stressed that NATO is taking all necessary measures to limit the spread of the virus. "NATO is taking the necessary measures to limit the spread of the virus and continue our work to ensure the security of our allies. The priority for us is the health of our staff", he said.

Among the measures to protect alliance personnel from the coronavirus, Stoltenberg also mentioned the procedure for holding his current press conference, which is organized online. Journalists are not present at it and ask questions via Skype, having previously registered with the NATO press service.