It is now a global pandemic in every sense of the word.
The coronavirus scourge has affected all seven continents after cases of COVID-19 were reported in Antarctica on Monday.
The virus reportedly infected 36 people at a research base in Chile. That number included 26 members of the Chilean army along with 10 maintenance workers, Newsweek reported.
The infected, who were stationed at General Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme, tested “positive for COVID-19” after “administering a PCR test”, according to a statement from the Chilean army to the local 24 Horas press. At least some of those infected showed symptoms before the positive tests.
Fortunately, all 36 have since been evacuated to the Chilean city of Punta Arenas, where they appear to be isolated and stable, according to The Guardian.
“Due to the timely preventive action … it was possible to release the mentioned personnel,” the Chilean army said in a statement to the local press. Since then, they have replaced GBOR crew members with new staff who have been quarantined and given negative results for the disease before deployment.
Unfortunately, the station’s staff members were not the only ones infected. Three workers on a ship that provided support to the South Pole station also tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from the voyage.
Despite its status as the most isolated continent on Earth, Antarctica remains uniquely susceptible to a coronavirus outbreak at its bases throughout the 1940s, the Guardian reported.
“A new highly infectious virus, with significant mortality and morbidity in the extreme and austere environment of Antarctica, with limited sophistication in health care and public health responses poses a high risk, with potential catastrophic consequences,” according to a Council document Administrators of the Antarctic Nation. Programs.