Gabriel Boric, presidential candidate of the left in Chile, tests positive for coronavirus

The deputy and presidential candidate of the Chilean leftist bloc I Approve Dignidad, Gabriel Boric, tested positive for coronavirus covid-19 this Wednesday, three weeks before the momentous elections of November 21.

“I just received the PCR test with a positive result and we are in contact with the Seremi team (Regional Ministry of Health) for traceability”, indicated Boric on his Twitter account.

The former student leader, a leader in most polls, developed a fever and cough Tuesday afternoon and underwent a PCR first thing in the morning.

On Monday and Tuesday, before participating in two debates with the other candidates, the letter from the Broad Front and the Communist Party was tested for antigens that came back negative.

“Let’s take care of ourselves and that no one misses their vaccine. We will connect to talk about the changes that we will promote together and, once protocols have been met, I will be with you again on the street ”, he added in the same message, in which he also asked his close contacts to “follow the indicated protocols”

According to the health protocol, Boric must comply with a 10-day quarantine, while his close contacts will be confined 7 days if they have the full vaccination scheme or 10 days if they do not.

The candidates Yasna Provoste (center-left), Sebastián Sichel (moderate right-wing government), Marco Henríquez Ominami (progressive) and José Antonio Kast (far-right) suspended their campaign actions and confined themselves preventively before knowing the result of Boric’s PCR.

The first three tests were carried out on Wednesday with a negative result, but they will have to remain confined while waiting for the health authority to decide whether or not they are close contacts.

“My hug to our volunteers who today, more than ever, are leading our campaign,” Boric concluded on Twitter.

The contagion of the candidate, who had planned to get the third dose of the vaccine against covid-19 this week, occurs at a time when Chile is experiencing a slight rebound in the pandemic, after months very controlled.

In the event that none of the candidates achieves more than half the votes in the November 21 elections – something that is almost taken for granted – a second round will be held on December 19.

The person who arrives at La Moneda (seat of Government) will have to redirect a country that experienced serious protests in 2019 and implement the norms of the new Constitution, which began to be drafted last July and which must be endorsed in an exit plebiscite , expected in 2022.

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