Half of the 50 Chilean senators and four ministers, including those of Finance and the Interior, have been placed in preventive quarantine after being in contact with parliamentarians contaminated with Covid-19, official sources announced on Monday. Finance Minister Ignacio Briones and Minister of the Presidency Felipe Ward announced on Twitter themselves that they have tested negative for coronavirus, but will remain in quarantine until a second test is done. . Then the Minister of the Interior, Gonzalo Blumel, and that of Social Affairs, Sebastian Sichel, did the same.
"Due to my regular relations with the Senate Finance Committee, to which Senator Jorge Pizarro belongs, I underwent a PCR test at Covid-19 on Friday evening. I then placed myself in preventive quarantine , ” said Ignacio Briones. "Thanks to technology, I will continue to work from my home," said Gonzalo Blumel, who met another affected senator on Friday.
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Over the weekend, some 20 parliamentarians were also placed in preventive quarantine after meeting two contaminated senators, including the Deputy Speaker of the Senate Rabindranath Quinteros (Socialist Party). The latter created controversy for having traveled by plane to the south of the country, shortly before his contamination with Covid-19 was confirmed, according to parliamentary sources. Local media also broadcast footage of a recent parliamentary session in which the Deputy Speaker kissed a senator, coughed, and touched a microphone on a table.
A third parliamentarian, Manuel Ossadon, confirmed on Monday that he was infected.
Chile on Wednesday saw a jump of 60% of new cases of coronavirus in 24 hours, and a doubling of the number of daily deaths in two days. The authorities have decreed for this reason the total confinement of the 7 million inhabitants of the capital Santiago, which concentrates 80% of the cases of contamination of the country. The executive had hitherto bet on a progressive confinement and by districts, as well as on a massive screening. The South American country of 18 million people has registered 46,059 reported cases of Covid-19 and 478 deaths since March 3, according to the latest official figures.
