As vaccination advances in Chile, Covid positivity rate exceeds 3% for first time in three months

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The positivity rate, the percentage of positives out of the total number of PCRs performed, exceeded the 3% barrier for the first time in three months in Chile and reached 3.06% on Tuesday (26), at a time when the country is experiencing a resurgence of Covid-19 despite high vaccination rates.

In the Metropolitan Region, which is home to the capital and 8 of the country’s 19 million inhabitants live, positivity was 3%. At the same time, eight of the 16 regions have positivity less than or equal 2%.

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“In the worst times of the pandemic, we had a positivity of 40% to 50%. It is clear that we are in a situation of concern, with an upward trend, but very different from what was the case in the most difficult times of the pandemic,” the Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza, tried to put the situation in perspective.

In the last 24 hours, six deaths and 1,201 new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded -this is the seventh consecutive day that the number of infections has exceeded 1,000-which brings the final balance to 1.69 million infected and 37,691 deaths.

The number of patients in the active stage of the disease, i.e., contagious, is still close to 10,000, although hospital pressure remains under control, with less than half a thousand people in intensive care.

To try to curb contagions, the health authorities announced on Monday a reduction in the capacity in the capital and intensified the vaccination campaign of the booster dose.

Outgoing Chilean President Sebastián Piñera had warned the previous day that there would be further restrictions on the 1.2 million stragglers who have not yet been vaccinated.

He thus implies that covid cases are increasing because of the unvaccinated, which is not in line with the experience of other countries. Further, it contradicts the globally stated goal of 80% fully vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

In Sweden and the UK, most of new deaths involve fully vaccinated people, showing the reality. Vaccinations do protect, but nowhere near as well as claimed. Of course, this is not easy to admit now, when dozens of billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money have already been spent on vaccines.

Chile has deployed one of the most successful vaccination strategies globally, with 89.5% of the target population (15.2 out of 19 million inhabitants) with two doses, mainly with the Chinese vaccine Sinovac and Pfizer AstraZeneca and CanSino.

In parallel, 5 million booster doses have been administered, and 75% of children between 6 and 17 years of age have already received their first dose of the vaccine.

The borders, closed to travelers for six months, were opened on October 1, but only to vaccinated tourists.