Chile authorizes digital coronavirus ‘vaccination card’, closes borders until June 15

Chilean health authorities have announced that the “vaccination card” giving greater mobility to people vaccinated against the coronavirus will go into effect on Wednesday, as they have indicated they will keep the borders closed until June 15th.

“The pass doesn’t mean gaining a lot more freedoms, means a small responsible step to regain mobility», Assured the spokesperson of the government, Jaime Bellolio.

This is a digital card which will allow Chileans who have received the doses -and only 14 days after completing the vaccination- leave quarantined areas and travel between regions, something forbidden for months.

Under Secretary of Health Paula Daza also announced that the border closure which has been in effect since the beginning of April will continue until June 15, which means you can only enter and exit the country in an emergency.

Chile had already sealed off the borders between March and November last year and closed them again due to the worsening health crisis, that put the health care system on the ropes.

With the arrival of May, the second wave seemed to subside and hospitals began to decongest, but there was a rebound in the cases last week.

In the past 24 hours, the country added 5,374 new cases and 30 new deaths, which leave the total pandemic balance in more than 1.3 million infections and 28,548 total deaths.

The national positivity rate -number of infections per 100 PCR tests- was 10.8% after performing more than 43,000 tests in the past 24 hours, while in the metropolitan area, which is home to the capital, it was 13%.

At the same time, the country continues to be among the most successful in the world in terms of vaccination: two doses to 50.6% of the populationn and a dose of over 63%, mainly from the vaccine from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, and to a lesser extent from Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

Regarding the English vaccine, the authorities have announced that they will shorten the administration time between the two doses in men under 45 to only 28 days, instead of 12 weeks, the usual time.

Source: EFE

PB