This archive report was first published on 14 July 2020.
On July 13, 2020, the Echizen Maru fishing trawler returned to port in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, after some of its crew began exhibiting symptoms typical of Covid-19.
According to the health ministry for the southern province, 57 sailors out of 61 crew members were diagnosed with the virus after undergoing a new test.
However, all of the crew members had undergone 14 days of mandatory quarantine at a hotel in Ushuaia before leaving port, and had previously tested negative.
Two sailors were hospitalized, and two others are awaiting test results.
"It's hard to establish how this crew was infected, considering that for 35 days, they had no contact with dry land and that supplies were only brought in from the port of Ushuaia," said Alejandra Alfaro, the director of primary health care in Tierra del Fuego.
"We cannot yet explain how the symptoms appeared," said Leandro Ballatore, the head of the infectious diseases department at Ushuaia Regional Hospital.
