(Buenos Aires) Argentina is trying to solve what seems like an enigma: seven sailors were infected with the new coronavirus after they had just passed 19 days at sea and that the entire crew had been tested negative before leaving.
Posted on 13 July 2020 at 16 h 17
France Media Agency
The fishing boat Etchizen Maru returned to port after some of its passengers showed typical symptoms COVID – 19, announced Monday the Ministry of Health of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, confirming seven positive cases.
However, the 60 crew members had carried out 14 Days of compulsory quarantine in a hotel in Ushuaia and before that, they had undergone samples whose results had been negative, according to a press release from the ministry.
“It is difficult to establish how this crew was contaminated, knowing that during 35 days, they had no contact with the dry land and that the supply was done only out of the port of Ushuaia, “says Alejandra Alfaro, director of Primary Health Care in Tierra del Fuego.
A team is studying “the chronology of symptoms within the crew to establish the chronology of contagions,” she said.
In the opinion of the head of the infectious diseases department of the Ushuaia Regional Hospital, Leandro Ballatore, this is a “case which escapes all description in the publications, because a period of such a long incubation has not been described anywhere ”.
“We cannot yet explain how the symptoms appeared. This is striking, but we have established five hypotheses which we must finish evaluating in order to establish what happened, ”insisted the expert in infectious diseases and member of the Emergency Operational Committee of Province.
The crew was placed in isolation aboard the boat, returned to the port of Ushuaia.
Argentina passed Sunday 100 00 0 cases, and the death toll is 1859. The overwhelming majority of contamination occurs in the Buenos Aires region.