The surge in positive cases of coronavirus quarantines seven out of 10 Chileans

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 will be in quarantine as of this Thursday.

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 a little more than a year ago the first infected was reported, never before have critical beds been so full (71% of these patients are admitted for coronavirus).

With the arrival of March and the beginning of the school year, after the licentious summer holidays, more exams are being taken than ever (76,335 were reported on Sunday), but with a positivity not seen in months: 11.7%, according to the data delivered this Wednesday by the Ministry of Health.

13.7 million people will enter quarantine, of the nearly 19 million that live in Chile.

Almost all of Santiago is affected by the measure, except for eight municipalities in the north of the city and one in the south.

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

But the restrictions have become tougher for everyone, due to the excessive use of special permits to leave the houses.

The inhabitants of the municipalities that are in phase two of

the Government's

plan

, with quarantine only on weekends, will not be able to request permits to leave this Saturday, Sunday, or Holy Week holidays.

Neither are the inmates, so they will be able to buy their food only from Monday to Friday, with special authorizations.

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.

More than 5,940,000 people have already been vaccinated, of which 3,105,000 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 with June 2020, the hospital situation is worse, while the numbers of new cases are 25% lower if only symptomatic cases are considered, and

death figures, at the moment, are 60% lower, "said in its report this Friday the study center Espacio Público, which has monitored the pandemic daily.

“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.

"Most of the people who have been consulted from the point of view of the political sphere prefer to keep the current dates of the elections, but nothing is set in stone," said Minister Paris.

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