record of vaccinated and 70% of the confined population

Chile has already passed the six million people vaccinated against covid-19 with at least one dose, and a large proportion of people over 70 are already vaccinated, but nothing has stopped a sustained increase in infections from setting in. hospitals and health care to the limit. confined again.

On the same day that Chile passed the six million people who received the first dose -3.1 million with two-, more than 80% of the 19 million inhabitants began a new total containment, without even the possibility of go out to buy basic supplies on the weekends.

Chile is leading the vaccination process in Latin America and the government of conservative Sebastián Piñera has called on the population “to make a last effort” to overcome the pandemic. The first effects of the vaccination of nearly 30% of its population are expected in April.

Health Minister Enrique Paris recognizes that the containment measure “is tough but necessary” to control the virus in the metropolitan region, the most populous in Chile.

Separate lanes
New variants of the virus, the relaxation of the population against vaccination and the end of the summer holidays in the south explain the rise in infections. As of Thursday, 7,000 new infections were surpassed in 24 hours, the second highest record since the start of the pandemic.

“These are phenomena that take place in totally different ways,” Darwin Acuña, president of the Chilean Society of Intensive Medicine, told AFP of the advancement of vaccination and the increase in infections that total 954,762 and 22,524 deaths.

The vaccines began to be administered on December 24, first to medical personnel, and from February 3 to the general population, starting with those over 90 years old.
“The effect of the vaccine on the population most at risk is not yet perceived, because for the population at risk, its second dose has just been administered (about 10 days ago)”, explains Acuña.
By mid-April, it is expected to “see a real effect on the critical bed needs of the population most at risk” and on mortality figures, he added.

Young people in intensive care

In intensive care units (ICU), they perceive differences from the first wave: younger patients who are admitted with greater severity.

“It seems to be more aggressive than last year; there are patients who arrive almost directly in intensive care and are intubated,” said Héctor Ugarte, chief medical officer of the adult critical patient unit at San Hospital. Pablo de Coquimbo, a coastal town. AFP north of Santiago.

The ages of hospitalization for covid have “fallen dramatically. At present, we have many more young people among those infected because they did not take care of themselves,” the Minister of Health said. .

Authorities said Thursday that in addition to the British variant confirmed in February, they had found “45 cases with the Brazilian variant” and tightened restrictions on travel to Brazil and the rest of the world.
Doctors and nurses admit they are going through a period of high pressure in hospitals, with critical beds on the edge (95% occupancy) even in areas like Coquimbo, where before March 2020 they had eight, today. today there are 38 and this week they have 46 hospitalized covid patients.

Hope vaccine

The government’s objective is to vaccinate 15 million people (out of a total of 19 million inhabitants) before June 30, and thus obtain the long-awaited “herd immunity”.
As of Thursday, 6,099,408 people have received a first dose of vaccines from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac or the American Pfizer used at that time.

Teachers, firefighters, journalists, the chronically ill, civil servants, staff at pharmacies and telecommunications companies have already received a first dose. All medical staff have completed the immunization schedule, as have many of the elderly.

Despite the increase in infections, the population is following the vaccination plan with hope.
In a nursing home in southern Chile, where residents and staff received a dose of the Sinovac vaccine in the first week of February, a major coronavirus outbreak resisted after more than 70 infected people were reported. Only one elderly person died and had not been vaccinated.

In hospitals, there is also optimism: “At the worst stage of the pandemic in 2020 at Coquimbo hospital, there were between 150 and 170” infected with covid among the 1,700 employees, Ugarte recalled. .
“At the moment, 80% of the workforce is on their double vaccine and for several weeks, there is one!” Said the doctor, visibly moved by what he considers “the first big demonstration” of the impact of the vaccine.