RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Chile registered on Wednesday, June 23, only 2,768 new cases of Covid-19, figures not seen since the beginning of last March, when a new peak of the pandemic emerged in the country, while the authorities announced that 80% of the target population had been vaccinated.
New cases decreased by 20% and 18% at national level in the last 7 and 14 days, respectively. The northern region of Arica and Parinacota was the only one to increase the number of infected in the last week.
With this Wednesday’s data, the total balance since the beginning of the pandemic amounts to 1.52 million infected and 31,746 deaths, after 56 new deaths were registered.
The number of active cases, that is, people who have become infected, also showed a significant decrease compared to the last few days, reaching 32,507 patients on Wednesday.
The number of patients admitted to intensive care remains unchanged at around 3,200, a figure that has hospital occupancy at its limit.
The national positivity rate – number of PCR tests per 100,000 inhabitants – was again below 10%, the World Health Organization threshold to begin to control the disease, and in the last few hours was 9.3%. However, in the Metropolitan Region, where the capital is located, and 7 of the country’s 19 million inhabitants live, it rose to 11%.
VACCINATION PROCESS MARKS “A MILESTONE”
The wave of contagions that Chile has been experiencing in recent weeks, which has put the hospital system on the ropes and forced the entire capital to be confined once again, has occurred even though the country has deployed one of the most successful immunization processes against Covid-19 in the world, which today reaches 80% of the target population.
This means that 12,199,649 people have been inoculated with at least one dose out of the 15 million citizens susceptible to being vaccinated.
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“That was our first major objective, and we can say, mission accomplished,” said Health Minister Enrique Paris, who added that this is “a milestone,” thanked the work of all the actors involved in achieving this goal and pointed out that it does not mean that we have to lower our defenses, quite the contrary.
Chile also began this week the inoculation of adolescents between 12 and 16 years of age, which the government sees as “a significant sign”, as its spokesman, Jaime Bellolio, said.
“But we have a huge group of stragglers (…) Getting vaccinated saves lives, it is an act of responsibility and solidarity with our families and also with the rest of the community”, he added.
The state of sanitary alert was also extended until September 30, and the country’s borders remain closed until July.