Antarctica

A Belgian outpost in Antarctica, one of the world's most remote regions, has been exposed to coronavirus two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Two-thirds of the 25 inmates at the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Polar Station in Antarctica having caught the virus since mid-December, The Jerusalem Post reported citing Le Soir magazine. All inmates at the station had been vaccinated with at least two doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

The first cases were detected on December 13, with three infections. Although the three were evacuated on December 23, the virus spread throughout the station. 

The Antarctic station is equipped with two emergency physicians and all the necessary equipment on hand to treat the disease caused by the virus, as well as the ability to analyze PCR tests.

Entry to the station has been blocked until the numbers begin to drop, according to Le Soir.

A virologist consulted by the Belgian Polar Secretariat said that the outbreak was likely caused by the Omicron variant, as it was the most common variant in South Africa, the last stopover before Antarctica.

The outbreak took place despite very strict precautions taken by the crew on their way to Antarctica.

The researchers who are at the station currently had to undergo a PCR test in Belgium two hours before leaving for South Africa and then another PCR test five days after arriving in Cape Town, as well as ten days of quarantine.

After quarantine, the workers had to undergo a PCR test before leaving, followed by yet another test five days after they arrived in Antarctica.
Antarctica was the last continent to be COVID-19 free until December 2020, when dozens of workers at the Chilean Bernardo O'Higgins base and Las Estrellas' village were found to be infected with SARS-CoV-2.