From the BBC:
“Coronavirus
spreads to Antarctic research station”
Coronavirus has
reached the Antarctic continent, which had so far been free of Covid-19. The
Chilean army has reported 36 cases at its Bernardo O'Higgins research station
on the Antarctic Peninsula. The 36, 26 of whom are military personnel and 10
maintenance workers, have been evacuated to Chile. The news comes just days
after Chile's navy confirmed three cases on a ship which had taken supplies and
personnel to the research station. The news means that Covid cases have now
been recorded on all seven continents. The Sargento Aldea arrived at the
research station on 27 November and sailed back to Chile on 10 December. Three
of its crew tested positive upon their return to the Chilean naval base in
Talcahuano. Chile's navy said all of those who had embarked on the trip to the
Antarctic had been given PCR tests and all the results had been negative. The
Bernardo O'Higgins research station is one of four permanent bases which Chile
has in the Antarctic and is operated by the army. Chile is the sixth
worst-affected country in Latin America with more than 585,000 confirmed
coronavirus cases. The British Antarctic Survey announced in August that it was
scaling back its research in the polar south because of coronavirus.
^ Antarctica
should have been the one place in the whole world that it would be easy to keep
out Covid-19 since it is so isolated yet the Chileans managed to mess that up.
^
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