Argentina's Antarctica isolated and safe from COVID

In complete isolation from the rest of the world, scientists and soldiers living at the Antarctic bases in Antarctica are among the last few hundred humans who live in the only continent without a single reported case of COVID-19.

There are about 400 people living in the country's 13 bases in Antarctica, six are permanent and the rest are operational only in the summer.

The staff at the bases, while living a normal life, are concerned with their relatives back at home contracting COVID-19.

About 30 relatives of 12 members of the Argentine Antarctic bases have had COVID-19 but recovered.

Otherwise, life goes on as normal.

The schools at Esperanza base for example are one of the few in the country allowed to have in-person classes for the 15 children and teenagers living in the base.

To avoid increasing the risk of taking the virus to Antarctica in the austral summer season that begins in November, Argentina plans send 400 military and scientific personnel to its Antarctica bases instead of the usual 2,000.

"Our priority objective is to avoid or minimize the risk of COVID-19 contact in Antarctica to keep the continent clean from COVID-19," said Argentina's Antarctic Joint Commander, Colonel Edgard Calandín.

All personnel traveling to Antarctica in the summer will be tested for the new coronavirus before and after a quarantine period at the Campo de Mayo military base in Buenos Aires.

While the bases have doctors and ventilators, they don't have testing resources for COVID-19 and at the first sign of infections, people will be evacuated.

More than 765,000 people in Argentina are confirmed to have been infected with the new coronavirus and more than 20,000 people have died of COVID-19 there since the pandemic started back in March.

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