Bad news in Chile: more restrictions due to increase in cases

Santiago de Chile today began a quarantine over the weekends that restricts the movement of people amid an 18% increase in coronavirus cases in the capital, as the country reports a total of almost 570,000 infections and over 15,800 deaths for disease.

The government has imposed a weekend quarantine on the 7.1 million inhabitants of the capital region, where the number of active cases of coronavirus has risen to 2,565 out of a total of 10,530 registered nationally, reported today. hui the Ministry of Health.

“The situation is alert, we must be responsible; Ideally, they should stay at homeLet’s make a sacrifice to have a good Christmas, to have a good New Year and, hopefully, have a good summer, ”said the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, during intercourse.

Health authorities reported 1,807 new cases nationwide and 64 deaths, totaling 569,781 people infected and 15,846 confirmed deaths to date.

Quarantine in Santiago restricts the movement of people who must apply to the police for a permit online to be able to leave their homes for the weekend, AFP news agency reported.

“We have seen how the cases have increased and reduced mobility at weekends is essential to reduce the number of infections ”added Public Health Under-Secretary Paula Daza.

Interregional travel is also prohibited, while shopping centers, gymnasiums, cinemas, theaters and nightclubs are closed.

Two weeks before Christmas and New Years, the new restrictions came under heavy criticism from the trade, which was just starting to rebound in sales after a very difficult year due to the pandemic. In the face of criticism, the government has drawn up a protocol so that street fairs for small traders can continue to operate.

“I understand traders who believe that it could hurt their performance, at his job, but if we don’t do it now, we’ll have a much stricter quarantine over the summer, ”Paris said.

After a peak of infections in June which reached 7,000 cases, the situation in Chile stabilized on average between 1,000 and 1,500 cases.