Chile: 24 municipalities to enter quarantine after sharp increase in COVID-19 infections

A large part of the capital of Chile and several municipalities in the country will return to total quarantine from this Saturday, Given the sharp increase in coronavirus cases in the country, as the vaccination process progresses, reaching more than 5.3 million people with at least one dose.

The Municipality of Santiago – where the Civic Center, Palacio de La Moneda, shops, offices and residential areas are located – will enter quarantine seven months after the release on August 16 of the last total containment decreed after the arrival of the pandemic in 2020.

From this Saturday, Santiago and seven other municipalities in the Chilean capital will enter quarantine, where 7.1 of the nearly 19 million inhabitants of the country live. In all, 24 municipalities across the country will enter the enclosure.

This Thursday, nine other neighborhoods in the metropolitan area began their containment, in an attempt to stop the increase in infections, which during that day reached 6,249 new cases and 172 deaths.

“The figures for the behavior of the coronavirus remain high”, Health Minister Enrique Paris said during the remittance of the balance on Thursday, when the highest daily amount had been reported since June of last year, amid the first wave.

Since the first case detected in the country, on March 3, 2020, Chile already has 911,469 infections and 21,988 deaths from COVID-19.

The rebound in Chile comes after the end of the southern summer vacation and with the successful progress of the vaccination campaign across the country, where 5.3 million people have already received at least the first dose, which is equivalent to almost a third of the target population to be vaccinated.

Half of those who have been vaccinated since February 3, when the campaign began for the general population, are over 60 years old, explained the minister. On the basis of this progress, added Paris, a decrease in hospitalizations of patients over the age of 70 is observed.

President Sebastián Piñera this week celebrated that Chile has passed five million people with at least a first dose of the vaccine, a target his government has set for the end of the month. The president also announced that from March 24, vaccination of healthy people, aged 50 to 59, will begin.

In addition, the Ministry of Health announced Thursday that it would vaccinate in advance the members of the board of directors who will participate in the elections of constituents, mayors, governors and councilors on April 11.

With information from AFP

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