Covid outbreak in Antarctica: 16 positives recorded at remote research station | Chronicle

More than half of the staff Princess Elizabeth Polar Station, On the Antarctica, they contracted COVID-19 Since mid-December, despite the fact that all members of the expedition have tested negative for PCR before traveling.

at least 16 out of 25 workers From a remote research station, she has tested positive for the virus since December 14. Everyone has received Complete vaccination schedule And they were negative in the PCR tests that they underwent before arriving in Antarctica.

As shown Joseph Cechproject manager International Polar Foundation to which the facilities belong, “The situation is not tragic and has not significantly affected our work at the station in general,” he added.

The first cases were recorded just seven days after the personnel arrived at the station. Despite being in one of the most isolated regions of the planet, More than 50% of the workers in this Belgian Antarctic outpost have already been infected.

Those affected are isolated and None of them had severe symptoms So far, since they all have a full vaccination schedule.

While it would have been inconvenient to have to isolate some of the employees who contracted the virus, it did not significantly affect our work at the station in general.Cheek told the BBC.

As highlighted “All station residents had the opportunity to depart on a scheduled flight on January 12th. But nonetheless, They decided to stay and continue their work.”

All casualties are monitored by two emergency physicians, and equipment is available for both treatment and analysis of PCR tests.