One of the most isolated places on earth, the cold icy continent of Antarctica just recorded its first cases of Covid-19 last Tuesday (22 December 2020), thus making the virus outbreak literally a global pandemic.
As reported by The Guardian, the continent, which is virtually uninhabited except for a few researchers from various parts of the world became the final continent to be affected by the virus. On Tuesday, 36 new infections were confirmed there, all of which are Chilean who were stationed at Chile’s research base there. 10 of which were maintenance workers while the rest are all members of the Chilean army.
The Chilean base that was affected.
A statement by the Chilean army confirmed the infections and said that thanks to timely preventive action, it was possible to relieve all personnel affected. They were subjected to PCR tests and found to have contracted the virus.
All of the 36 affected individuals were evacuated to the city of Punta Arenas in Chile and reported to be in good condition and subjected to quarantine.
For illustrative purposes.
In case you didn’t know, Chile has 13 research bases in Antarctica which is kind of weird. I mean, for a South American nation to have several bases in the cold continent of Antarctica does beg the question: Don’t they feel Chile out there in the cold? 😛
On a serious note, due to the pandemic, virtually all research endeavours from all at the continent have been halted. For all the Chileans that have contracted the virus in Antarctica, we wish them a speedy recovery. Hopefully, with mass inoculation using various vaccines already going on in the world, the pandemic would be over sooner rather than later!
Also read: Hong Kong Extends Mandatory Quarantine To 21 Days Amidst Discovery Of New Covid-19 Strain
