Chile again surpasses the barrier of 8,000 daily cases of coronavirus

Chile this Saturday, for the second day in a row, surpassed the barrier of 8,000 new cases of coronavirus covid-19, although it did not exceed the historical record registered the day before (8,112)

The health authorities reported that in the last 24 hours, 8,028 new cases and 103 deaths were registered, which raises the total balance since the beginning of the pandemic to more than 1 million infected and 23,524 deaths, to which should be added more than 8,000 that are not yet confirmed.

“There is no lack of control, there is an increase in cases that we had even foreseen,” said the Chilean Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, at a press conference.

During the most critical months of the first wave, between last June and July, the new cases did not exceed 7,000.

The positivity rate – the number of COVID-19 infections detected per 100 PCR tests – was 11% nationally in the last 24 hours and 12% in Santiago, while the number of patients in the active stage of the disease, that is, that they can infect, rose to 44,584.

The virulence of the pandemic, in which the Brazilian and British variants are playing a fundamental role, led the Chilean government to announce on Thursday the closure of borders for a month.

It was also decreed the advance of the curfew at 9:00 p.m., the restriction of economic activities that are essential and the limitation of individual permits that citizens can request to go out during the quarantine.

Currently, more than 83% of the population is in strict home confinement, although during the Holy Week holidays the quarantine will affect 97% of the 19 million inhabitants of Chile.

The worsening of the pandemic, which forced the postponement of the April 11 elections to May, runs parallel to a successful vaccination process, thanks to which more than 6.8 million people have received at least one dose (3 , 7 million for the two injections) and has placed Chile among the three countries in the world with the highest percentage of inoculated population.

“We are hopeful that the vaccine will begin to give a result, and there are already some signs,” said Paris.