Source::Xinhuanet
SANTIAGO,
The Chilean government's mass COVID-19 vaccination plan, which has already inoculated more than 5.5 million people, has extended to Antarctica with the vaccination of 48 people working at the country's bases on the continent. Victor Videla, captain and doctor of the Chilean Air Force's President Eduardo Frei Montalva base, told Xinhua that the vaccines arrived on March 13 by air from Punta Arenas, the closest Chilean city.
On March 14, 48 CoronaVac vaccine doses from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac were administered to members of the Chilean Armed Forces, the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the South American country.
Videla, who provides medical services for personnel at the bases 24 hours a day, stressed that no one reported any severe adverse effects. "We are relieved," he said, since "the sanitary protocols of things and people that come here are very rigorous and strict." Anyone arriving at the base must present a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken less than 72 hours before the trip and undergo at least two weeks of quarantine, he explained.
Chile's mass vaccination plan has involved going to such rugged and inhospitable areas as a result of the geographical heterogeneity of the country. It was quite a feat in Antarctica because it occurred in the midst of the icy environment characteristic of the continent. Among the vaccinated is Marcela Andrade, head of an infrastructure at INACH's Professor Julio Escudero base, where she is the only woman of the six staff members.
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