The second wave of coronavirus is sweeping the interior …

The Chilean Ministry of Health reported that 4,956 cases of coronavirus were recorded on Friday, the highest number since June 21 (5,607). There were also 84 deaths in the last 24 hours. The health portfolio specifies that so far, 1,221 people are hospitalized in intensive care units, the highest figure since August 14, when 1,253 people were registered.

Of more than 1,200 hospitalized, 1,024 are on mechanical ventilation and 93 are in critical condition. Current hospitalization levels in Chile have figures similar to those in June and July, when the occupancy of critical beds in the metropolitan area peaked at 90% with more than 4,000 cases and 200 deaths per day.

“From the outbreaks we have in our country, we see that the majority are intra-domiciliary or intra-family. We find that some people do not respect the sanitary standards or the curfew ”, denounced the Under-Secretary for Public Health, Paula Daza.

Complaint about vaccination

Amid the increase in cases, the health portfolio responded to a complaint from Izkia Siches, president of the medical school, who assured that the vaccination plan was “very different from region to region. other”.. Siches assured yesterday that they were “extremely concerned about the management of the vaccination process” amid the increase in daily cases of coronavirus.

He illustrated the “uneven” distribution by explaining that there are areas in Chile where up to 7,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine have reached and in others they do not reach 200 doses to vaccinate, while first, health workers and then the elderly.

The doctor asked the Ministry of Health to establish “clearly the order of priority” and also stressed that he “would follow it to the letter” to “implement the distribution of vaccines throughout the country with justice territorial and epidemiological criteria ”.

The president of the medical faculty also recalled that the occupation of critical beds at the national level is increasing and before that she called on the citizens “not to relax” and to follow health measures.

The hospital crisis

Regarding the new hospital crisis due to the increase in inmates, Darwin Acuña, president of the Chilean Society of Intensive Medicine (Sochimi) revealed yesterday in an interview with DNA radio that the occupancy of critical beds is 92%.

He noted that Chile is currently experiencing “a second wave” of coronavirus because “the increase is marked and very rapid, which is worrying”, especially outside the capital, Santiago, noting that there are regions “which are much more stressed than others. “

Despite the call to take care of themselves by the government and other institutions, nearly a million Chileans have gone on vacation to different spas, a situation that keeps regional authorities on the alert for possible epidemics. on the beaches.

Alarm in Valparaíso

Most of the new cases have been recorded outside the metropolitan area, which is home to the capital and was the main focus of the pandemic in the first wave, with health services on the brink of collapse.

The health crisis has moved to towns such as Valparaíso, where its mayor, Jorge Sharp, reported that the occupancy rate of intensive care beds had peaked in the region and before that, the president of the Medical College de Valparaíso, Ignacio de la Torre, had requested the suspension of the holidays. quit and “reduce business openings”.

The saturation of the hospital network has also been transferred to different regions in the south and north, where the authorities have already warned that they are at the limit and that they will start transferring patients to other regions of the country. The southern region of Los Lagos set one of its records on Friday, with 753 new cases, despite the fact that much of the territory has been in full quarantine since this week.

Chile saw a sharp rise in the number of infections in early January which forced authorities to declare weekend quarantine in most of the capital and total containment in more than half a thousand cities, a measure that affects more than 20% of the population. .

The start of the second wave coincides with the summer season, which has made frequent underground parties, crowds in coastal areas, and illegal movement between regions, which are only allowed with a single-use holiday permit throughout. long summer. According to the record of the riflemen, more than 940,000 Chileans have applied for vacation permits and the majority come from Santiago, the main source of infection in the country.

Unlike the first wave, when the positivity rate on the total number of PCR tests was close to 40 percent, in the last 24 hours, a rate of less than 10 percent was recorded after 62,516 tests.

Chile is the sixth country in Latin America with the most cases of coronavirus, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO). With more than 7.5 million PCR tests since March, Chile is one of the countries in Latin America and the world that has performed the most tests per million inhabitants.

The country has already approved the emergency use of the vaccine from the American company Pfizer and that of the Chinese company Sinovac and was one of the first countries in the region to start the vaccination process on December 24.