Coronavirus: Chile is close to 30,000 new cases and sets a record for the fourth consecutive day

Chile touched this Saturday the 30,000 new daily cases of the COVID-19, registering 29,175 new infections in the last 24 hours, which is a record for the fourth consecutive day.

The contagious omicron variant is triggering infections, which in the last five days totaled more than 110,000, far exceeding the accumulated figure for the last six months of 2021.

“This new wave has affected the whole world, registering the largest number of cases of the entire pandemic globally, for our part, in Chile we are in the middle of summer, a time when we travel, socialize and relax self-care measures”, Health Minister Enrique Paris said.

The Metropolitan region, which houses the capital and where 8 of the country’s 19 million inhabitants live, had a positivity rate of 20.6%, higher than the national average (20.1%) and one of the highest in the pandemic.

The balance since the start of the pandemic then stood at 39,653 deaths -after registering 33 deaths in the last 24 hours- and 2.1 million infections, of which the record number of 99,474 are still active, which means that they can transmit the virus. virus.

Hospital pressure, however, remains low, although there is a collapse in some laboratories, with hundreds of people lining up to undergo a PCR test.

Despite the explosive increase in cases, the Government is not considering new confinements, but rather the reduction of capacity in the most affected regions and the promotion of vaccination.

Recently, in addition, it announced that it reduces the mandatory quarantine for those infected by covid-19 from 10 to 7 days due to evidence that omicron infections are milder and last less than other variants.

Chile has deployed one of the most effective vaccination campaigns in the world, reaching more than 92% of the population, including children (19 million inhabitants), with the complete schedule, and has already administered more than 12.3 million third doses.

Immunocompromised people and health workers began to be vaccinated with the fourth dose two weeks ago, which will be followed by those over 55 years of age in February.

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