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SANTIAGO (Reuters) – The coronavirus has landed in Antarctica, the last continent previously free of COVID-19, Chile’s military said this week, as health and military officials rushed to clear and quarantine personnel from a remote research station surrounded by ocean and icebergs. .
Chile’s armed forces said that at least 36 people had been infected at their Bernardo O’Higgins base, including 26 members of the military and 10 civilian contractors performing maintenance at the base.
The permanently staffed research station, operated by the Chilean military, is located near the tip of a peninsula at the northern tip of Antarctica, overlooking a bay often dotted with icebergs.
Base personnel “are already properly isolated and constantly monitored” by health authorities in Magallanes, in Chilean Patagonia, the army said, adding that so far there have been no complications.
Research and military stations in Antarctica, among the most remote in the world, had done everything they could in recent months to keep the virus out, canceling tourism, reducing activities and staff and blocking facilities.
Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey estimate that some 1,000 people at 38 stations across the frozen continent had safely navigated the southern hemisphere winter without incident. But an increase in travel to and from the region this spring and early summer has increased the risk of infection.
An Army press officer said the first cases of COVID-19 had been reported in mid-December, when two soldiers fell ill.
The Magallanes region, one of the closest populated areas to Antarctica and a takeoff point for many ships and planes heading to the continent, is among the most affected in Chile.
Much of the area, whipped by cold winds from the ocean, mountains and glaciers, has been under quarantine restrictions for months.
The Chilean Navy reported that it had also detected three cases of COVID-19 among 208 crew members of a ship that had sailed in the Antarctic region between November 27 and December 10.
(Information by Natalia Ramos; Additional information by Aislinn Laing and Reuters TV; Written by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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