Daily US Times: The Covid-19 has reached the Antarctic continent, which had so far been free of coronavirus.
The Chilean army has reported 36 coronavirus cases at its Bernardo O’Higgins research station on the Antarctic Peninsula.
The 36, 26 of whom are military individuals and 10 maintenance workers, have been evacuated to Chile.
The news of the Covid infection comes just days after Chile’s navy confirmed three cases on a ship named the Sargento Aldea, which had taken supplies and personnel to the research station.
The news means that coronavirus cases have now been recorded on all seven continents.
The ship arrived at the research station on 27 November and sailed back to Chile on 10 December.
Three of its crew tested positive for Covid-19 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 to detect the virus 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 by the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America with more than 585,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.
In August, the British Antarctic Survey announced that it was scaling back its research in the polar south because of coronavirus.
Meanwhile, a growing number of countries are observing surge in coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
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