RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “The favorable evolution of the past few weeks has led to a reduction in the number of ICU patients to 1,516, which is 1,500 less than a month ago,” the undersecretary of Health Care Networks Alberto Dougnac said.
After a serious 2nd wave that lasted from March through July and pushed the hospital system to its limits, the pandemic has now subsided in Chile to levels unseen since April 2020 and the country is partially returning to normality after a long period of severe restrictions.
Nevertheless, a number of regions continue to register high hospital occupancy rates, such as coastal Valparaíso, with 96% ICU occupancy, Araucanía in the south (93%) and the Metropolitan Region, home to the capital city ay 89%.
In the past 24 hours Chile registered 1,383 cases and 119 deaths, bringing the total pandemic balance to over 1.6 million cases and 35,295 deaths.
Active cases, i.e. infectious, dropped to 8,017 yesterday, well below the over 40,000 recorded during the 2nd wave and the positivity rate has remained below 3% for over 10 days.
“We have completed 51 days of full improvement in the figures this week, but we must be cautious in maintaining restrictions,” added Health Minister Enrique Paris.
Authorities have not yet opened the borders to foreigners, closed since April, and the curfew is in force from midnight to 5 AM in most parts of the country.
In parallel, Chile is conducting one of the world’s most successful immunization campaigns: 79.5% of the target population has completed its vaccination, more than 86% has been administered one vaccine dose and 12 of the 16 regions surpass the threshold of 80% of the target population immunized.