Santiago de Chile quarantines its entire population due to the rebound in cases

Health personnel vaccinate in Santiago, Chile against covid-19, on March 24.MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP

The pandemic in Chile is going through one of the worst moments, so that seven out of 10 Chileans entered quarantine as of this Thursday and, from Saturday, all the inhabitants of the capital region will be added (with about seven million people ).

Never in the entire health crisis had such a level of confinement been reached in the South American country, because the figures are not encouraging.

The occupancy of beds in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) reaches 95% in the public and private networks nationwide, which function in an integrated manner in response to the health crisis.

Since the first infection was reported just over a year ago, critical beds have never been so full.

With the arrival of March and the beginning of the school year, after the licentious summer holidays, more tests are being done than ever (70,922 were reported today), but the number of daily cases for the second time in a week surpassed the barrier of the seven thousand (7,023), as had not happened in the first wave.

Today 13.7 million people entered quarantine, of the nearly 19 million that live in Chile.

Among those that begin confinement are the popular Maipú and Puente Alto.

But from Saturday the Metropolitan Region will be added completely, as reported this afternoon by the health authorities, who have also announced the new restrictions for all travelers entering Chile through the international airport.

All those who enter from March 31 must go to a transit hotel for five days, paying out of their own pocket the expenses (except those who have started their trip before the 27th).

If the PCR is negative, they will be allowed to spend an additional five days of quarantine at their residence.

If it tests positive, they must be transferred to a sanitary residence.

This new measure is in addition to the one that governs people arriving from Brazil from today.

According to a decree published this Thursday, these travelers must take a PCR test at the airport and, even if it is negative, from the airport they must move to a transit hotel, where they have to stay for 72 hours.

After that time, if the test is negative, they can end their mandatory 10-day quarantine in a private residence.

The Government's instructions indicate that "all costs associated with their entry must be paid by the traveler himself when taking out his health passport, at the time he takes his plane to Chile."

"This is not the time for travel or tourism," said the minister spokesman, Jaime Bellolio.

He has also explained why air borders are not closed, despite the fact that 64 cases of covid-19 corresponding to the British variant and 45 of the Brazilian variant have already been detected.

"Democratic countries cannot prevent the entry of their citizens," said the minister.

The Government of Sebastián Piñera has had to announce a new aid package so that people stay at home and mobility can really be reduced.

In a televised speech on Monday night, the president reported on a package of measures that would benefit 15 million people, including the extension of the Emergency Family Income (IFE) and a bonus for the middle class of up to $ 690.

The Executive's plan seeks to implement precisely when Congress is studying a third withdrawal of 10% of pension savings, which threatens to empty the system of the Pension Fund Administrators (AFP).

Chile is going through one of the worst moments of the pandemic just before the effects of the successful mass vaccination begin to be observed, the first results of which could be seen from mid-April, according to the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris.

According to the latest balance, 6,099,408 people have already been vaccinated and 3,166,096 have already received their two doses.

This Wednesday, in addition, the inoculation of healthy people aged 59 years and under who were not considered in the priority groups began.

Chile's goal is to have vaccinated 15 million of its inhabitants before the end of the first semester of 2021. Currently, of the patients who have been in the ICU for covid-19 a week ago, 676 are between 60 and 69 years old, but 610 are between 50 and 59, one of the most affected groups in this new wave.

"If we compare it with June 2020, the hospital situation is worse, while the figures for new cases are 25% lower if only symptomatic cases are considered, and the death figures, for the moment, are 60% lower", The Espacio Público study center, which has monitored the pandemic daily, indicated in its report on Wednesday.

“We believe that ICU patients and deaths will continue to increase in the coming weeks and it becomes urgent to communicate as clearly as possible the critical situation we are experiencing, with all the uncertainties posed by both the transmission of the disease and the possible results. of the vaccination process ”.

The bad numbers of the pandemic seriously endanger the holding of the multiple elections of April 10 and 11, where the 155 conventional ones who will write the new Constitution, the mayors, councilors and governors will be elected.

The authorities should make a decision in the next few hours.

"If we want to change the date of the elections, legislative changes are required, in which the Executive, parliamentarians and health authorities have to participate, whose opinion we will give to President Piñera," Minister Paris said today.

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