You can enter the country by land through three points.
Chile’s health authorities announced that the country will open its land borders as of December 1, after a closure that has lasted for eight months and during which entry has only been partially allowed through a few airports.
According to the Undersecretary of Health, Paula Daza, the country can be entered by land through three points: Chacalluta and Colchane (to the north), which border Peru and Bolivia, respectively, and Pino Hachado, in the region of La Araucanía (south-central), an emblematic crossroads with Argentina.
These entrances are in addition to the four already enabled airports located in Santiago and in the towns of Iquique and Antofagasta (to the north) and Punta Arenas (in the extreme south), added Daza.
All Chilean and foreign residents, non-resident travelers with vaccines validated by the Ministry of Health or children under 6 years of age may enter through any of these seven points.
“Those who have registered and validated booster doses will not have to do isolation or diagnostic tests upon arrival,” added the undersecretary, but the rest will have to undergo a diagnostic test and quarantine for five days if they are not vaccinated.
Chile closed the borders in April, when it was going through a second wave of the pandemic that put the health system on the ropes and reopened them for all kinds of people, residents or not, last October, but only by air.
Despite the fact that the country has been going through a slight rebound in the pandemic for almost two months, the health crisis remains under control, there is no municipality in total quarantine and the positivity rate in PCR tests was 3.2% in the last 24 hours.
In the Metropolitan Region, which is home to the capital and where 8 of the 19 million inhabitants of the country live, this index also remained at 3%, although some regions such as Aysén or Los Ríos to the south, exceeded 5%.
This Monday, 2,377 new infections and 26 deaths were added, raising the balance to more than 1.7 million infected and 38,001 total deaths since the arrival of the virus.
Active cases (that can infect) reached 14,000, one of the highest figures since July, although admissions to intensive care units remain down, which were less than 600.
Chile has deployed one of the most successful vaccination strategies in the world: it exceeds 7 million booster doses and more than 90% of the target population has already received at least two, the majority with the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, but also Pfizer, AstraZeneca and CanSino.
In order to stop the spread of the virus, starting next December, everyone over 45 years of age will be required to receive the third dose to be able to use their vaccination card, a government pass that allows events with larger capacity and to be treated inside of bars and restaurants. (I)
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