Chile has entered a new phase of reopening after reporting the lowest number of daily infections since November

The metropolitan region and 22 other municipalities in Chile began on Monday a larger reopening phase when the health authorities announced the lowest number of daily contaminations since last November.

To date, 138 of the country’s 345 municipalities are already in Phase 3 out of the 4 provided for in the “Step by Step” plan. This phase eliminates quarantines and allows a return to classes and higher capacity activities such as gymnasiums, cinemas, theaters or shows. Likewise, it allows greater mobility for people who have been vaccinated and who have the mobility pass granted by the government.

Other 154 communesIn the meantime, they are still in phase 2 and must be quarantined on holidays and weekends.

Chile reported on Monday 1,015 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest number since last November, while patients admitted to intensive care units fell below 2,000 for the first time in four months.

“The incidence of confirmed cases 7 days reaches 81 cases per 100,000 inhabitants»Announced the Chilean Minister of Health, Enrique Paris.

The total balance since the start of the pandemic therefore remains in 1.6 million cases and 34,539 deaths, after registering 24 deaths in the last 24 hours.

The national positivity rate – number of positives per 100,000 PCR tests – was for the second consecutive day lower than 3% (2.9%) after having completed more than 30,600 exams.

National positivity has been below 5% for two weeks, the threshold established by the World Health Organization (WHO) to consider the pandemic under control.

He also came down to 1.991 the number of patients hospitalized in intensive care already 11.575 active cases, that is, people who can currently spread the virus. “Covid patients are the 56% of all patients in intensive care units, with admissions declining by 65%, from 243 in April to 74 in July moving average, ”added Paris.

The number of people admitted to intensive care units (ICU) daily for COVID “It continues to drop very significantly, precisely because of the drop in infections that we have been witnessing for a few weeks”, said the undersecretary for assistance networks, Alberto Dougnac. To date, 81 patients are admitted daily, “63 fewer than in the first wave and 156 fewer than in the second wave,” he added.

In the report presented by the health authorities, a drop of 34% was observed for the comparison of cases at 7 days and 44% of cases at 14 days, so there is a considerable drop new cases, said Paris, which said cases have declined in all 16 regions of the country.

Given the favorable epidemiological situation, since last Thursday, the country has been facing the pandemic with less strict measures and more benefits for vaccinated people, who can access gymnasiums, theaters, cinemas and centers for the elderly.

In the Santiago metropolitan area, home to 8 of the country’s 19 million inhabitants and was for months the epicenter of the pandemic, The quarantine that had been in effect for months on Saturdays and Sundays is lifted as of this week.

Chile has deployed one of the most successful coronavirus vaccination processes in the world, which today it reaches over 85% of the target population with a single dose and nearly 11.6 million people with two injections, mainly with Coronavac, and to a lesser extent with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Cansino.

The country, which maintains a curfew and borders closed until July 25, study the application of a third dose to avoid regrowth, especially after the arrival of the delta variant, of which nearly twenty cases have already been confirmed.

(With information from AP and EFE)

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