Chile continues to add cases, with positivity rate above 10%

The coronavirus pandemic remains ruthless in Chile, who this Sunday added more than 7,300 new cases in the middle of the Easter holidays – when fewer people are expected in the hospital -, while the positivity rate – positive for 100 tests carried out – remained above 10%.

Health officials said that in the past 24 hours, there was 7,304 new cases and 120 deaths, bringing the total balance since the start of the pandemic to more than 1 million infected and 23,644 deaths, to which must be added more than 8,000 which are not yet confirmed.

Meanwhile, the positivity rate – the number of positive results per 100 exams performed – remains above 10%.

A positivity rate of less than 5% for two consecutive weeks is one of the epidemiological criteria established by the World Health Organization (WHO) to consider the pandemic under control.

Only five of 16 regions declined in new cases last week and Atacama (north), Metropolitana (the one that houses the capital), O’Higgins (center) and Aysn (south) are those who have shown the greatest increase in new infections.

So far, the highest number of new infections since the start of the pandemic has been detected on Friday (8,112). During the most critical months of the first wave, between June and July, new cases did not exceed 7,000.

“The citizen must maintain the self-care measures which are so far the most effective in preventing new infections”, declared Chilean Minister of Health, Enrique Paris.

The virulence of the pandemic, in which the Brazilian and British variants play a fundamental role, has led the Chilean government to announce the closure of the borders for one month, which will be effective from Monday.

The advancement of 9:00 p.m. curfew, restriction of essential economic activities and limitation of individual permits that citizens can request to go out during quarantine.

Currently, more than 83% of the population is strictly confined to their homes, although during the holidays of Holy Week, quarantine affects 97% of the 19 million inhabitants of Chile.

Hospitals are on the brink of health care collapse, with a record 2,884 people in intensive care and just 189 critical beds available nationwide.

The number of patients with the active stage of the disease is also at its peak, with 44,261 people who can currently infect.

The worsening pandemic, which forced the postponement of elections from April 11 to May, goes hand in hand with a successful vaccination process, thanks to which more than 6.9 million people have received at least one dose (the 55% of both injections) placed Chile among the three countries in the world with the highest percentage of population vaccinated.