IT is presently the only place in the world to remain untouched by the deadly coronavirus currently sweeping the globe and efforts are continuing to ensure Antarctica remains so.
How many people are there?
Antarctica has no permanent residents and instead, around 66 scientific stations and field camps, of which half are occupied year-round. There are around 4,000 people from all over the world residing on the continent during the peak summer months, climbing from around 1,000 during the winter.
In all, 28 countries have research stations on the continent, the largest of which is McMurdo Station, an American research base, which can support more than 1,000 residents.
And there are no cases so far?
Up-to-date data from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland in the US put the number of global cases at around 680,000 yesterday, with the US having the most at nearly 125,000 and the total number of worldwide deaths at 32,000, with figures rising constantly. And as of writing, Antarctica remains the only continent not to record a confirmed case.
To keep it that way?
The British Antarctic Survey organisation - which undertakes polar science and aims to "help society adapt to a changing world" through its research - said it has initiated a raft of measures to "keep Antarctica Covid-19 free”. For its stations on the continent, additional screening is in place and quarantine procedures in place for anyone symptomatic.
Also?
Steven Marshall, head of the BAS’s Governance, Risk and Assurance, said: “If a member of the team that is destined for Antarctica has been to a tier one or tier two infected country, they will be placed in two weeks isolation before boarding the ship to the continent. The ship then takes four weeks to reach Rothera station.
“This would then be enough time to see if any personnel are incubating the coronavirus.”
Contingency plans?
Leader of Britain's Rothera base, Michael Brian, said the 140 or so stationed there are prepared. He said: "We have a contingency plan to survive for a number of years, but I do not think it is going to come to that and the whole planet would have to be in a very poor place before that situation would arise.”
Ultimately, though, nowhere is safe?
Given the cramped conditions, low temperatures - the lowest recorded was −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) on July 21, 1983 - and also the remote location, infectious diseases are always an issue of concern on the continent and in the face of the virulence of Covid-19, there are no guarantees of safety anywhere.
Jeff Ayton, chief medical officer at the Australian Antarctic Division, said simply: “No continent is immune, including Antarctica.”
Antarctic’s particular geographic issues?
In the harsh winter, there are no flights and staff are completely cut off, with bases frozen over with ice and the nearest hospital thousands of miles away in Chile.
Mr Ayton told The Washington Post of the main concerns: “If you have an infectious agent in a remote site with austere medical facilities, it will overwhelm a single doctor.”
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