RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Thursday, Chile’s health authorities reported 124 more deaths from the Covid-19 pandemic, a daily figure not seen since late July, raising the provisional number of people who have lost their lives to COVID-19 to 12,469.
The Ministry of Health also reported 1,731 additional infections, raising the number of cases recorded so far to 451,634. At least 426,876 have recovered from the disease, leaving 12,289 cases still active in Chile, reported the newspaper El Mercurio.
Some 890 patients remain in intensive care, of which 124 are in critical condition, according to the official report, raising the number of tests performed in recent months to detect coronavirus cases in the South American country to 3.1 million.
On Wednesday, the government started a partial lifting of the confinement measures in eight communes of Santiago and its suburbs, which means that the confinement measures have already been lifted in virtually all of the capital metropolitan area.
The Central Bank reported on Thursday that it will suspend a number of measures introduced in July to mitigate the potential economic impact of a law allowing citizens to withdraw part of their pensions early, as of October 5th.
The Bank explained in a press conference that the measures sought to “mitigate increased volatility in the markets” and that the decision to reverse these measures was taken because “most of the liquidation of assets associated with the withdrawal of up to ten percent of pension funds has already materialized.”
Among the measures reversed is “the special program for buying Term Deposits” and a plan for cash purchase operations along with a term sale of instruments issued by banking institutions aimed at open market organizations, the bank said.
On July 23rd, the Chilean Parliament passed an unprecedented law for early retirement over one year, to which 87 percent of the 11 million contributors to the pension system have already subscribed.
Source: infobae