Amid of the preparations for the Covid-19 vaccines, the infection has reached every corner of the planet with fresh cases being reported from Antarctica.
Chilean authorities has announced that 58 folks that were at two military bases in Antarctica or on a navy ship that visited the continent tested positive for the new coronavirus.
So far, no other country with a presence in Antarctica has publicly reported new coronavirus cases.
On Monday, Chile’s army announced that 36 people at the Gen Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme Antarctic base have tested positive for coronavirus, and on Tuesday the health minister for the Biobio region in Chile said there are 21 infections involving people aboard the Chilean navy’s Sergeant Aldea supply vessel.
One more case was reported in Las Estrellas’ village, where civilian personnel was performing at the Lieutenant Rodolfo Marsh Martin Air Force Base live, said Eduardo Castillo, regional health secretary for the Magallanes area, which oversees Chilean operations within the Antarctic. The Sargento Aldea ship docked at that village, he added.
According to the military, the primary group of 36 people including 26 members of the military and 10 civilian employees of maintenance contract company. It said nobody so far had shown complications
Three people on the Sergeant Aldea vessel were tested positive for coronavirus, last week. After this, all 208 crewmembers are being quarantined aboard that ship, consistent with the navy. It said the vessel had serviced the bottom on the Trinity Peninsula between November 27 and December 10.
The US National Science Foundation, the agency overseeing US programs in Antarctica, said it had been conscious of the reports of positive cases in passengers aboard the Sergeant Aldea.
According to the reports, Chile is that the sixth worst-hit country by the pandemic (coronavirus spread) in Latin America . It’s recorded about 5,85,000 confirmed coronavirus cases so far . The Bernardo O’Higgins research station is one among four permanent bases that Chile has within the Antarctic.
So far no other country with a presence in Antarctica has publicly reported fresh cases of COVID-19.