Chile: alert for a possible new strain of coronavirus | the Chronicle

After the arrival of a second wave of coronavirus cases in Chile, where there was a new record of 8,112 infections, The Chilean authorities are not ruling out the possibility that a new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has developed in this Transandean country.

The Chilean Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, was consulted this Saturday to know if there is “Chilean strain” coronavirus, in addition to the British and Brazilians already detected in the country, which explain the rise in infections, according to the ANSA Agency.

The highest health authority replied that “The Institute of Public Security (ISP) sequesters all suspicious variants, with the support of the Ministry of Science”.

“So far two have been detected and from next week 500 samples will be sequenced – double what has been done so far – to detect new strains that could explain this increase in infections.”, he detailed.

Nearly 3,000 people (between the elderly and the young) are hospitalized for coronavirus in Chile

The Chilean authorities are using extreme resources by expanding the beds in ICUs (intensive therapy), given that the number of people requiring hospitalization now reaches 2,867 people, including 2,460 under mechanical ventilation.

According to information from the Ministry of Health, there is a total of 199 critical beds available in the Covid-19 integrated network.

Some municipalities in the metropolitan region have extended the vaccination against the coronavirus to Saturday and Sunday, in order to speed up the vaccination.

On whether there is a collapse of the country’s emergency system, after press reports ambulances have to wait to be able to leave patients, the Minister of Health said he was unaware that there was a wait in the ambulance assistance services.

The undersecretary of health networks, Alberto Dougnac, he pointed out that “There are 3,900 intensive beds, which puts enormous pressure on the emergency services”However, he pointed out that the country has “a protocol to be derived from emergency systems which allowed us to avoid the traffic jams that occurred last year”, alluding to the first wave of June 2020.

In this second wave, emergencies push young adults to be intubated given the ferocity with which the virus attacked them. Healthcare workers not only exhibit physical exhaustion but also extreme emotional fatigue.

Register of coronavirus cases in Chile

Chile reported for the second day in a row more than 8,000 new cases of coronavirus, with 8,028 infections reported in the past 24 hours after the record number of 8112 patients.

With the new 8,028 new cases this Saturday, in the country 1,019,478 SARS-CoV2 patients have been confirmed, of which 44,584 remain active, that is to say carriers of the virus capable of transmitting it.

The Department of Statistics and Information of the Ministry of Health (DEIS) has confirmed 103 deaths from causes associated with the coronavirus, with which the number of victims of the pandemic rose to 23,524 people.

By comparison, on Saturday last week, 66 deaths were recorded by relevant agencies and 7,588 infections reported. The labs today reported the results of 70,458 PCR tests, which gave a national last 24-hour positivity of 11.09%, while the positivity in the metropolitan area was 12%.