Thirty-six COVID-19 infections have been reported at a scientific research base in Antarctica, the icy continent's first reported cases.
Twenty-six members of the Chilean army and 10 maintenance workers caught the disease, Spanish-language media reported. They were stationed at Chile's General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme research base on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, which reaches up towards South America.
"Thanks to the timely preventive action it was possible to relieve said personnel, who, after being subjected to a medical control and the administration of a PCR test... turned out to be positive for COVID-19," the Chilean army said in a statement.
They have been evacuated back to Chile and are in isolation. A new crew has reportedly replaced them, having already been through quarantine and testing negative before leaving Chile.
Until this week, Antarctica was only continent on Earth to have no reported cases of the virus, which has infected tens of millions of people - at least - and killed 1.7 million.
Not even the Spanish Flu, which killed at least 50 million people, reached Antarctica. There are usually only about 1000 people on the continent at any one time.
"The risks and implications of virus transmission to Antarctic wildlife are largely unknown," the British Antarctic Survey said just a few weeks ago.
"Given the diversity of transmission routes and vectors, preventing the introduction of the virus will be difficult, even with stringent quarantine procedures in place."
