AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has finally arrived in Antarctica, nine months after it was rolled out. The vaccine was flown to the Antarctic in order to immunise the staff who had been keeping the research stations running through the polar winter.
The British Rothera research station in Antarctica has 23 staff members. The vaccine shots that arrived at the research station were developed at the Oxford University.
Antarctica had been free of Covid-19 except a few cases in the Chilean base. The international science agencies said that they wanted to keep the pole Covid-free.
As the new research season is approaching in the summer, strict health and travel protocols will be in place in the research stations.
The crew of the RRS Sir David Attenborough, the new polar ship of the United Kingdom, will go into quarantine in a few days, before they start their journey to the south next month with supplies and equipment.
The AstraZeneca vaccine took a 10,000-mile journey to that began with RAF Voyager flight from Brize Norton. The mammoth trek of AstraZeneca included two step-overs in Senegal and the Falkland. The doses were kept at a temperature level of 2 to 8 degree Celsius in a special transport container.
The vaccine reached British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) Rothera base in a small Twin Otter plane, on Tuesday.
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