Santiago, Dec 22 (Sputnik) A Chilean research base in Antarctica announced that they detected that 36 of its members were infected with the COVID-19 virus, making the continent the last in the world to be affected by the pandemic, the Chilean military said on Tuesday.
The COVID-19 cases were detected on the Base General Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme, which is a permanently staffed Chile’s research center on the Antarctic continent.
“36 men tested positive for Covid-19, of which 26 are Army personnel and 10 are civilians from a contractor company that was performing scheduled maintenance work at the Antarctic base,” the military said, cited by the La Tercera newspaper.
The infected people were evacuated and put in self-isolation with constant monitoring, the army added.
According to the newspaper, it was probable that the Sargento Aldea vessel, which had visited the research center from November 27-December 10 before going into quarantine on December 17, was the source of the coronavirus disease on the Antarctic base. The ship crew detected three COVID-19 cases among its 208 members.
