Chile eliminates the mandatory use of masks outdoors after two years of pandemic

Chileone of the countries with the toughest measures to face the pandemic, announced this Tuesday that the use of masks will not be mandatory outdoors as of April 14 in regions where the health risk is low or medium.

The Undersecretary of Public Health, Cristóbal Cuadrado, explained in a press conference that masks will be mandatory, however, “in closed spaces and in any open space where a physical distance of more than one meter cannot be maintained.”

“In places where there are crowds, even if they are outdoors, there is a risk,” he said.

This is one of the most anticipated measures in Chilewhere the pandemic has been in decline for weeks after the peak caused by the contagious omicron variant in February and which raised daily infections to almost 40,000 infections.

In the last 24 hours, only 1,932 new cases and 11 deaths were registered, bringing the total balance since March 2020 to almost 3.5 million infections and 56,809 deaths.

The national positivity rate, which was around 30% months ago, was 5%, while in the capital region it decreased to 3.4%.

Patients in intensive care units have also begun to decrease, going from a thousand to less than 500 in the last few days, most of whom do not have the complete vaccination schedule.

“Although today we are in a good epidemiological scenario, we will not hesitate to implement more restrictive measures if necessary,” the undersecretary warned.

The end of the mandatory use of masks is part of a new strategy to face the pandemic launched this Tuesday by the Chilean government and that includes three phases depending on the epidemiological risk: low, medium and high.

On April 12, the phase in which the 16 regions of the country are in will be announced and in those with high risk, the mask will be mandatory both indoors and outdoors.

Chilewhich has carried out one of the most successful inoculation processes in the world, still maintains strict protocols for foreign tourists.

Source: Elcomercio

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