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NSF suspends travel to Antarctica due to COVID-19 outbreak at McMurdo Station. File photo of US State Department/UPI | License photo
November 7 (Unified User Interface) – One Coronavirus disease An outbreak at an Antarctic research station has caused the National Science Foundation to halt travel to the world’s southernmost continent.
This NSF report There are more than 70 cases of COVID-19 at McMurdo Station, the continent’s largest station. The travel suspension will last at least two weeks.
“The NSF’s top priority has always been the health and safety of our community, while ensuring that the overall scientific mission can be achieved,” NSF said in a statement on its website.
“Management is taking steps to reduce population density to reduce the potential for transmission. NSF will issue updates as plans are finalized and the situation rapidly changes.”
Essential travel, such as travel for health and safety reasons, will still be allowed.
McMurdo The station has about 1,000 researchers focused on aeronautics, astrophysics and geospatial science, biology and ecosystems, geology and geophysics, glaciology, geomorphology, ice cores, and ocean and climate systems.
Antarctica was the last continent to report positive cases of COVID-19 until December 2020. Its natural isolation from the rest of the world is the main reason it has been able to avoid the immediate effects of the pandemic, McMurdo station manager Erin Hurd Say.
“When the outbreak became severe, the NSF and the rest of the National Antarctic Program Management Board acted quickly to stop bringing people to the mainland,” he said.
The General Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme research base reported 36 positive cases, the first outbreak on the African continent. Twenty-six of them were Chilean soldiers and 10 were civilians.
Ten percent of the population currently deployed in Antarctica has tested positive for COVID-19. NSF recommends that McMurdo researchers wear KN95 masks at all times. A total of 98 of the 993 people stationed in McMurdo have tested positive. 64 cases are still ongoing.
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