Chile: Despite mass vaccination campaign, Santiago has started a new total quarantine due to increase in COVID-19 cases

The metropolitan region of Santiago de Chile began a new total quarantine this Saturday as a health security measure in the face of the increase in daily cases of covid-19 despite a successful mass vaccination campaign.

This is the third time that the health authorities have decreed this exceptional measure of massive containment since the first case of coronavirus was detected in the country on March 3, 2020.

The restrictions in the capital, which affect more than 7 million citizens, They are considering the exception of immunized people who have the mobility permit issued by the government to travel within their municipality (municipality) during the day, since the night curfew imposed at the start of the pandemic still applies.

“We want to call for the responsibility of everyone to respect health measures. If you are asked to comply with the measures, please do so “pleaded with the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris.

All schools, non-essential shops, restaurants will be closed until further notice in the 52 municipalities that make up the region, one of the foci of the pandemic which was already in total quarantine for a month last April and in 2020 for eight. weeks.

The measure raised voices for and against. While some support health monitoring, others point out that people with fewer resources should go to work.

“I can like it or not like it, but I think it is necessary”, Pascual, a 75-year-old man who did not give his last name, told AFP. “There are a lot of people who have to go out because they don’t have food, they have to work on something. It is not the best solution but it is the only one that exists for the moment ”.

Chile recorded 7,624 cases and 107 deaths from covid-19 this Saturday, which represents a total of more than 1.4 million infections and more than 30,000 deaths.

At the same time, the South American country has already vaccinated 11.3 million people with at least one dose, and with two to 8.8 million of the over 15.2 million that make up the target population -of the 19 million inhabitants of Chile-.

However, rapid advances in vaccination have not prevented the increase in cases.

Forties “seems good to me because the pandemic is out of control, the government sucks and hasn’t been able to deal with it since day one. The vaccine does not prevent contagion, it just keeps hospitals from being so crowded», He underlined AFP a 29 year old young man who identified himself as Matías.

Chile has so far received 22.7 million doses of Sinovac vaccines (17.1 million), Pfizer / BioNTech (4.5 million), AstraZeneca (693,600, also via Covax) and CanSino (300,000), and recently approved the uso by Janssen of Johnson & Johnson.

Some experts point to the less effectiveness of the majority vaccine, that of the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, as one of the reasons the cases haven’t gone down yet. It only prevents 65.3% of infections, compared to 95% for Pfizer / BioNTech or 80% for AstraZeneca, according to a report released by the government of Chile.

“We have to wait until there are 75% or 8% of vaccinated with two doses to achieve collective immunity, and even then we will not know if this will be achieved”, explained Efe Nicolás Muena, virologist at the Science and Life Foundation.

Authorities have ruled out circulation of the Delta variant and they focused on vaccinating late groups, those who, although called in, have not been vaccinated and are mostly under 39 years of age.

With information from AFP and EFE

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