New infections soar again in Chile in spite of rapid vaccination

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Chile surpassed again this Thursday the 8,000 new cases of covid-19, a figure not registered since April when the country lived the most critical moments of a second wave of the pandemic, and even though more than 50 % of the population has already received the two doses of the vaccine.

“An increase of 6% of cases is observed at the national level than the last 7 days”, said the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris.

In the last 24 hours, 8,117 new infections and 185 new deaths were recorded, bringing the balance of the health crisis to more than 1.3 million infections and 28,809 deaths.

This rise in the number of infections is occurring at the same time as one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world: Chile has managed to vaccinate more than 51% of the target population – 9.7 million people – with two doses, a mark that places it only behind Israel, according to data from the University of Oxford.

The Minister of Health explained that if there is still no change in the evolution of the pandemic, “it is because Israel or the United States started two months earlier with the massive immunization campaign”, which in Chile began in February 2020.

With one dose, 66% have been vaccinated, more than 10 million people, mostly with the Chinese laboratory Sinovac. To a lesser extent, Pfizer and AstraZeneca will be applied to men over 18 years of age and women over 55 years of age.

This week will also see the arrival of the first batch of the vaccine from the Chinese laboratory CanSino, a single-dose serum, the fourth one authorized in the country.

The increase in infections began a week ago, just when the country seemed to be recovering from a serious second wave in March and April, after the summer vacations, which put the health system on the ropes and pushed the number of new cases to record highs, above 9,000.

With the arrival of May, which brought a slight improvement in the figures, the authorities began to lift quarantines, put back the curfew by one hour, and finalized the “mobility pass” details, a card that grants more freedoms to those vaccinated.

The pass, Paris clarified, “is a recognition of the sacrifice” of those vaccinated and is “an indirect stimulus” for young people to get vaccinated, and which on the last day led to a record 216,000 people being inoculated.

The number of patients in intensive care units also increased: in the last 24 hours, 3,024 people were seriously ill -one of the highest figures on record-, which means that only 217 critical beds remain free throughout the country.

The national positivity rate -positive PCR tests per 100 tests performed- was 10.1% this Wednesday, after more than 70,000 PCR tests were performed. In the Metropolitana Region -the one where the capital is located- it was 13%.

Chile maintains its borders armored until June 15, the curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., and the state of emergency for catastrophe for more than a year.