Chile lifts the total quarantine in Santiago and other cities after stabilizing second wave of coronavirus

The health authorities of Chile announced this Monday that they will lift the confinements in a dozen locations in the Santiago Metropolitan Region after a month of total quarantine, an announcement that occurred after several days with the number of new infections below 7,000.

“April has been one of the most complex months in terms of the pandemic, so now it is essential that we all cooperate to continue moving forward “said at a press conference the Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza.

In total, 16 municipalities from various regions of the country will abandon the confinement this Thursday, a much-anticipated announcement after a month of tightening of restrictions due to a strong second wave that worsened in March after the summer holidays and forced the confinement of 90 % of the population and to close non-essential businesses.

Despite this, the border closure is maintained, a measure that was imposed at the beginning of April and that will be in force for another month to prevent the spread of the virus and the entry of new variants.

In the last 24 hours, 6,078 new infections of covid-19 and 119 deaths, which leave the total balance in 1.17 million infected and almost 26,000 deaths.

The national rate of positivity in the last 24 hours – number of infections per 100 PCR tests – was 8.34%, the lowest since March, after almost 70,000 tests were carried out.

Although the number of new cases has stabilized, the hospital system has maintained saturation levels never seen before, above 96% and in the last 24 hours the number of patients in intensive care units was 3,363, one of the highest figures of the entire crisis.

Regarding vaccination, the country carries out one of the most successful processes in the world: more than 7.9 million people (more than 50% of the population) have been inoculated with at least one dose and more than 39% have already received both doses.

Most of the vaccines administered are Coronavac, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, from which Chile has received almost 14 million doses, while to a lesser extent doses of Pfizer / BioNTech have also been applied.

The country also approved the use of the vaccine from the Chinese laboratory Cansino, of which it will begin receiving batches in May, and that of AstraZeneca, which it will only administer to women over 55 and men over 18 years of age.