Chile confirmed the first case of the Delta variant of the coronavirus

A person from the United States is the first confirmed case of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in Chile, the information was confirmed by the Minister of Health of that country, Enrique Paris.

“She entered through the Santiago airport, was immediately checked, a PCR (swab), an antigen test was carried out, this virus was sequenced and unfortunately it was shown to be a patient with a Delta variant “, Paris told Parliament, where it is debated whether to extend the state of emergency due to disaster and the night curfew in effect since March 2020 as Health measure against the pandemic.

Chile had already confirmed the presence of Alpha strains in its COVID-19 infected, first identified in the UK; the Beta, in South Africa; and Gamma, in Brazil.

“It’s much more contagious than the variants we’ve had so far. The Delta variant has a very high increase in viral transmission, a possible increase in severity, risk of re-infection in patients who previously had another variant infection “said the head of the health portfolio.

The government representative expressed the authorities’ “concern” over the arrival of this new variant of COVID-19 After the condition it has generated in countries like the United Kingdom and Israel, where vaccination against the coronavirus is progressing at a good pace, like in Chile, but the presence of this variant has significantly increased new infections.

“Unfortunately, this can become a dominant variant within months approaching, ”he said.

Chile currently maintains its vaccination process deemed “successful”, with 12.1 million people having already received the first dose of the vaccine, while 9.7 million, two doses. The government plans to vaccinate the target population of more than 15 of the country’s 19 million people by the end of June.

For several days, the statistics of the disease in Chile have shown a decrease in cases of daily infections. On Tuesday, they added 2,768 cases and 56 deaths from the coronavirus. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has counted 1.5 million patients and more than 30,000 deaths.

Evaluate the third dose

The main Chilean authorities They are seriously analyzing the development of a plan to apply a third dose against the coronavirus for those who have been inoculated with the Chinese Sinovac vaccine during those months.

The idea caught on after President Sebastián Piñera, taking advantage of the start of vaccination for minors between 12 and 17 years old in Chile, said that “we are analyzing and reviewing many studies” on this initiative.

“We will make this decision soon because as a government we are always careful not only to deal with the issues of the day.On the contrary, we must anticipate in order to prepare ourselves to face the problems of tomorrow, ”added President Piñera.

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