Chile’s military said this week that the coronavirus had arrived in Antarctica, the last continent previously free of Covid-19, as health and military authorities rushed to clear and quarantine workers from a remote research station surrounded by oceans and icebergs.
The Chilean armed forces announced that at least 36 people at its Bernardo O’Higgins base had been contaminated, including 26 military personnel and 10 civilian maintenance contractors at the base.
Chile’s military said this week that the coronavirus had arrived in Antarctica, the last continent previously free of Covid-19, as health and military authorities rushed to clear and quarantine workers from a remote research station surrounded by oceans and icebergs.
The Chilean armed forces announced that at least 36 people at its Bernardo O’Higgins base had been contaminated, including 26 military personnel and 10 civilian maintenance contractors at the base.
In recent months, science and military stations in the Antarctic – among the most remote in the world – have gone to incredible lengths to keep the virus out, cancel tourism, scaling back operations and staff, and locking down facilities.
Researchers with the British Antarctic Survey estimate that about 1,000 people safely navigated the southern hemisphere at 38 stations across the frozen continent.
The first Covid-19 cases were identified in mid-December when two soldiers fell ill, an Army press officer said.
One of the most hard-hit regions in Chile is the Magallanes region, one of the closest inhabited areas to the Antarctic and a point of departure for many ships and planes bound for the continent.
For months, much of the region, blasted by cold winds off the coast, mountains, and glaciers, has been subject to quarantine restrictions.
The Chilean Navy also announced that it had found three cases of Covid-19 among the 208 crew members of a ship that sailed between Nov. 27 and Dec. 10 in the Antarctic region.
Source: Reuters