COVID-19 pandemic in Antarctica

Antarctica is the only continent with no confirmed cases of COVID-19 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but human activity in Antarctica has nonetheless been indirectly impacted.

Background
On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan, Hubei, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.

The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.

Antarctica
People coming to Antarctica research stations have to undergo isolation and COVID-19 screening. The Antarctica research stations of Australia and Germany have respirators; it remains unconfirmed whether the research stations of the U.S. and Britain have them. The British Antarctic Survey implemented precautionary measures.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel caused complications with evacuating British Antarctic Survey personnel from the continent.

In April 2020, a cruise ship headed for Antarctica had almost sixty percent of its passengers test positive for COVID-19.

, bases in Antarctica contain only skeleton crews, visitors have been limited, and scientific research has been impacted.

Several conferences on the topic of Antarctica that had been planned for mid-2020 were cancelled due to the pandemic.