Antarctica is one of the many new countries that has been placed on Malta’s Dark Red Travel List.

At present, there are 4,490 people living in the continent undertaking various roles in research, as well as a number of tourists.

Last December, the COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately reached their icy shores.

There isn’t much information on the situation in Antarctica now, however there has been a substantial amount of research done on the effect of COVID-19 on its incredibly diverse wildlife and subsequent ecosystem stability.

Experts have concluded that “direct contact with people poses the greatest risk for spreading the virus to wildlife, with researchers more likely vectors than tourists”.

Check out the whole list here:

• Afghanistan
• Algeria
• Angola
• Anguilla
• Antarctica
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina
• Aruba
• Bahamas
• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belarus
• Benin
• Bermuda
• Bolivia
• Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
• Botswana
• Bouvet Island
• Brazil
• British Virgin Islands
• Brunei
• Brunei Darussalam
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Cape Verde
• Cayman Islands
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Chile
• Columbia
• Comoros
• Congo
• Cook Islands
• Costa Rica
• Cote d’Ivoire
• Curacao
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Djibouti
• Dominican Republic
• Dominica
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Eswatini
• Ethiopia
• Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
• French Guiana
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Grenada
• Guatemala
• Guadeloupe
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Guyana
• Haiti
• Honduras
• India
• Indonesia
• Iraq
• Ivory Coast
• Kenya
• Kiribati
• Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan
• Lao People’s Democratic Republic
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Madagascar
• Malaysia
• Malawi
• Maldives
• Mali
• Martinique
• Mayotte
• Mongolia
• Marshall Islands
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Mayotte
• Mexico
• Micronesia (country)
• Montserrat
• Morocco
• Mozambique
• Myanmar
• Namibia
• Nauru
• Nepal
• New Caledonia
• Nicaragua
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Niue
• Norfolk Island
• Northern Cyprus
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Palestine
• Papua New Guinea
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Philippines
• Pitcairn
• Reunion
• Russia
• Rwanda
• Saint Barts
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Maartin (French part)
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Samoa
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Senegal
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Sint Maarten (Dutch part)
• Solomon Islands
• Somalia
• South Africa
• South Sudan
• Sri Lanka
• Sudan
• Suriname
• Syria
• Tajikistan
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Timor
• Timor-Leste
• Togo
• Tonga
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tunisia
• Turkmenistan
• Turks and Caicos Islands
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• Uruguay
• United States, minor outlying Islands
• Uzbekistan
• Vanuatu
• Venezuela
• Virgin Islands (British)
• Wallis and Futuna
• Western Sahara
• Yemen
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

What do you think of this development?