Several people are showing symptoms of the disease on the islands, home to around 3,000 civilians and 1,300 military personnel.
They have been put in isolation as a precaution, though an initial batch of coronavirus tests came back as negative.
"If you get it badly you are going to end up with a lot of guys ill and not fit to defend the place," he said.The military is looking to fly some service personnel, civil servants and contractors, who are deemed particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, back to Britain to reduce the burden on the limited medical capacity at the base should an outbreak occur.
Alongside the 1,300 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Royal Marines stationed at Mount Pleasant are hundreds of contractors and a contingent of civil servants. This includes either putting people in isolation to reduce their chances of falling sick or - for those moving into or out of a country - to spend a fortnight in quarantine on either side.
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