Covid-19 Spreads To Antarctica, The Last Untouched Continent

• A Covid-19 outbreak has been reported in Antarctica for the first time since the pandemic began.
• According to reports, 36 people tested positive of the virus at the General Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme research base.
• 26 of them are Chilean army members while 10 are maintenance contractors.
• The 36 patients have since been placed in isolation i the city of Punta Arenas.

For the longest time, Antarctica has been known as the only Covid-free continent in the world. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

Reports have confirmed that the dreaded coronavirus has finally reached Antarctica after 36 persons have tested positive on Monday, December 21 – all of them stationed at a Chilean research base.

The 36 infected patients are composed of “26 members of the Chilean army and 10 maintenance workers,” according to The Guardian.

The General Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme Base

In an official statement issued by the Chilean Army, we read:

“Thanks to the timely preventive action, it was possible to relieve said personnel, who, after being subjected to a medical control and the administration of a PCR test… turned out to be positive for COVID-19.”

The 36 patients have since been evacuated to Punta Arenas, a city in Southern Chile. All of them have been placed in isolation and are reportedly in good condition.

To prevent further spread of the virus, the station personnel have also been replaced “by a new crew who had been quarantined and tested negative prior to their journey,” wrote Newsweek.

It remains unclear when authorities initially discovered the positive cases but La Prensa Austral, a Punta Arenas newspaper, previously reported that government officials mentioned that they were “handling information from people who traveled to Antarctica and upon arrival on the continent presented symptoms related to Covid-19 and which were later confirmed with PCR tests.”

Watch this video report by Bloomberg: