FOR IMMEDIATE & WIDE RELEASE
UTC Tuesday 4 January 2022, 0200hours
STATEMENT FROM THE COMNAP SECRETARIAT
Antarctica remains largely COVID‐19 free
Recent media reports heralded the arrival of the Omicron variant to the largely COVID‐free Antarctic
continent. The reports are mostly accurate, with the virus being confirmed in several symptomatic
Belgian expeditioners at the Princess Elisabeth Station in a remote location in Dronning Maud Land,
Antarctica. With 25 people at the station at the time infection was confirmed, it is assumed all are
infected and are all being treated as such.
An outbreak in Antarctica was not unexpected and Antarctic programs were prepared. Remarkably,
almost two years into a global pandemic, the very great majority of the large continent and the
thousands of expeditioners there remain COVID‐free. This is no small achievement and has only
been possible due to the remarkable efforts of the 37 national Antarctic programs‐the governmental
organisations responsible for their countries activities in the Antarctic region.
Through the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP), national Antarctic
programs collectively developed and agreed to follow COVID‐19 prevention and response guidance
based on evidence coming from the WHO and from peer‐reviewed publications and sources. The
guidance assisted the programs to put in place managed isolation and testing protocols, medical
screening, psychological support and to prepare for outbreak management and response in
Antarctica should that occur. Therefore, programs have been, and continue to be, engaged actively
in implementing pre‐deployment protocols, especially at the traditional “gateway” countries to
Antarctica (Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa). By‐and‐large the protocols
have worked with thousands of Antarctic expeditioners, scientists and science support persons,
transiting from all over the world to their final destinations in Antarctica staying virus free. The
Belgian expeditioners were using the South African gateway to Antarctica in November and
December 2021, precisely at the time the WHO was declaring Omicron a variant of concern, first
discovered in South Africa. Contrary to recent public media reports, beyond the Belgian station, the
virus is not circulating at any other national Antarctic program stations.
COMNAP Executive Secretary, Michelle Rogan‐Finnemore, said “The collective efforts of the national
Antarctic programs for the past two Antarctic research seasons has been truly remarkable and has
ensured risk related to the global pandemic and the austere Antarctic environment, where there is
limited medical sophistication readily available, has been addressed and mitigated, and even
eliminated when possible. For example, at each of the traditional Antarctic gateways, strong
protocols are in place so that no program expeditioner gets on a plane or ship to Antarctica unless
they have undergone strict isolation and testing procedures. There are also intra‐continental policies
in place, so that when testing reveals a positive case in Antarctica, isolation from any other
neighbouring programs and stations mean there is very low possibility for station‐to‐station spread.
Antarctica’s large, open spaces and great distances between Antarctic research stations certainly
assists with ‘social distancing’ requirements and for last season, even neighbouring stations had a
strict ‘no visitation’ policy. The usual friendly interactions between neighbouring stations went the
way of the rest of the world, and neighbouring stations turned to zoom and other virtual methods to
communicate and interact.”
The majority of the programs are also from countries that have mandated or strongly advocate for
vaccination, so all programs are as prepared as they can be to ensure all is being done to protect
Antarctic personnel. Right now, no other positive cases in national Antarctic programs’ expeditioners
are being reported from Antarctica.
Because of these efforts, the programs have been able to deliver critical data and results from
Antarctic scientific experiments from the entire Antarctic region across both summer and winter
periods all while keeping people healthy and safe. Antonio Quesada, COMNAP Executive Committee
Chairman and Head of Spain’s Polar Committee notes, “This has ensured we have a continuum of
data from the Antarctic region. Such data is critical to our understanding of how the Antarctic drives
and respond to global change. If the past two Antarctic seasons could not take place due to COVID,
we certainly would have lost valuable globally important data. That was not acceptable to the
Antarctic programs and so they committed to outbreak prevention protocols to maximise safety
while delivering science.”
The efforts continue. Beyond the Dronning Maud Land region of Antarctica, the vast continent
remains COVID‐19 free. A remarkable achievement given the extent and evolving nature of the
SARS‐CoV‐2 virus, its variants and the extent to which the world is globally inter‐connected. National
Antarctic programs have proactively worked to keep the Antarctic COVID‐free and efforts will
continue to maintain that for as long as needed.
STOPS
Michelle Rogan‐Finnemore
Executive Secretary
Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP)
COMNAP Secretariat, Christchurch, New Zealand
www.comnap.aq | @comnap1
+64 (0)3 369 2169
