The end of the world is not immune to Covid-19. Despite the implementation of very strict health rules, the Belgian polar station Princess Elisabeth is not spared by the pandemic, according to Le Soir Mag. Out of a workforce of 30 people, including 5 on expedition, all vaccinated, two-thirds are contaminated by the coronavirus.
It all started with a positive case, detected on December 14, in a person who had arrived seven days earlier. She was immediately placed in segregation. Tests revealed that two others were also infected. All three were evacuated on December 23, but that was not enough, far from it.
Explorer Alain Hubert, executive operator of the station and responsible for security measures, including health, confided that all the staff present had previously received two doses of vaccine, one person even benefited from the booster dose. No Belgian is currently suffering from severe pathologies. Reassuring factor: two emergency physicians and all the necessary equipment both for treatment and for the analysis of PCR tests are present on site.
A transit through South Africa
Some infectious diseases think regarding contamination during the trip. Scientists passed through South Africa, to Cape Town, where the Omicron variant is responsible for 99% of infections, according to RTL Belgium. However, all health measures have been scrupulously respected.
The Strategic Council of the Polar Secretariat has decided to cancel and postpone one of the two campaigns planned for this southern summer season. The Meteorites Bamm mission!, intended to document the evolution of the solar system is maintained. But scientists will only be able to access the site following a quarantine in South Africa, and when the members present at the station all present a negative PCR test.