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Subject: Antarctica
Replies: 21 Views: 690

shadow27 22.07.20 - 02:54pm
It's cut off from the rest of the world for months at a time - and there's not been a single case of coronavirus. So why are the research teams at Antarctica following isolation rules to combat the virus when it's probably not even on the continent?

''A case of Covid-19 here could be disastrous. So we are taking lockdown measures, too. It feels like we are isolated within the isolation. Prevention is much better than the cure,'' * +

birdy 22.07.20 - 02:55pm
Isn't Antarctica where the wall at the end of the earth is? lol * +

shadow27 22.07.20 - 02:55pm
That's Pradeep Tomar - a medical doctor on a research mission to India's Bharati base, in Antarctica.

He is five months into a year-long deployment to the station.

And if Covid-19 reached an Antarctic research base, it could be devastating. There's nowhere else to go, medical facilities are limited - and the likelihood of spreading it to others would be high. * +

shadow27 22.07.20 - 02:56pm
And so despite being on the only continent without any cases of coronavirus, the 23-strong team at the facility has been on lockdown since February.

Anyone coming to Antarctica is now quarantined for 14 days.

And if someone starts showing Covid-19 symptoms in Antarctica, they must be isolated immediately, alongside anyone they've had contact with. * +

shadow27 22.07.20 - 02:57pm
And before lockdown started, there would be regular visits to Bharati from neighbouring expeditions.

The visitors' national flag would be raised for their arrival. The different teams would celebrate important national days together. And if one of the bases needed equipment they did not have to hand, they would borrow it from their neighbours.

''This level of harmony among nations is not visible in the real world,'' Dr Tomar says * +

shadow27 22.07.20 - 02:59pm
But he has not seen anyone from another facility since the beginning of March, when joint activities were paused.

When Dr Tomar arrived at Bharati, on 15 November 2019, to study the psychological effects of a polar expedition on the researchers, the world was much the same as it had always been. Now, he says, there is a constant anxiety on the site, fuelled by the lack of information about coronavirus - and constant worrying about their families back home.

Dr Tomar and his colleagues have only a vague idea of what the global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns entail.

He is relying on friends and family for updates.

And some consequences of the social distancing he is struggling to imagine at all. * +

shadow27 22.07.20 - 03:01pm
''Friends have been telling me that they are surviving in a situation like ours, isolated and glued at home,'' he says.

''It is beyond my imagination to realise the entire world going out with their masks on. * +

birdy 22.07.20 - 03:04pm
Ok you just talk to yourself then. * +

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