Despite being the world’s Covid-19 vaccination champion, Chile records high infection rate

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This week, Chile became the world’s fastest country in vaccinating its citizens against the coronavirus. However, on Thursday, March 11th, the government announced the return of confinement of the Santiago metropolitan region over weekends, and decided to anticipate the start of curfew to 10 PM, due to the very high infection levels in the capital and in several of the country’s regions.

Over 5,500 new infections in just one day and 150 more deaths: these are the figures the Ministry of Health announced on Thursday in Chile. Such numbers had not been recorded since the very first wave of infections in July, in this 19 million inhabitants country.

In this context, the government announced stricter health measures, particularly in the Santiago region, where all communes will be confined during weekends.

However, the Medical Association said it was not surprised by the situation, because although the vaccination campaign is progressing rapidly, few people have been administered the two required doses.

Furthermore, March in Chile marks the return to school classes and to work after the summer, and this has most likely influenced the rise in the number of infections throughout the country.

Finally, according to the Medical Association, the traceability of coronavirus cases still needs to be improved. The country totals approximately 28,000 deaths due to the coronavirus, including probable cases.

In the preceding days, Paraguay and Uruguay reported new record numbers of daily COVID infections.

There are now some who blame Brazil for neighboring countries having to struggle with the Brazil variant. Others say that Brazil bashing must stop because the virus migrates in all directions.