The Chilean health authorities confirmed the detection of the first case of the Ómicron variant in Santiago in a 65-year-old man who had no links with travelers arriving in the country, being the first infected by community transmission of this COVID-19 mutation.
The Regional Ministerial Secretariat (Seremi) of Health of the Metropolitan Region reported the case through a public statement released last night revealing the detection of the variant after a genomic sequencing carried out by the Institute of Public Health (ISP).
“It corresponds to a 65-year-old patient, with a significant morbid history, who is hospitalized in a healthcare center in the region. According to the National Immunization Registry (RNI), it does not have a vaccination registry against Covid-19 ”, points to the document.
According to the epidemiological investigation of the Health portfolio, five close contacts of the case were defined that “have already completed quarantine at home.”
“The investigation is ongoing, to date no epidemiological link with travelers has been identified”, is added in the statement.
At this dawn there have been seven cases of variant Omicron detected throughout the country and an increase in infections is expected due to the mobility of people that occurs by the end of the year due to the intensification of commercial activity.
Chile carries out one of the most successful vaccination processes in the world that even includes minors as young as 3 years of age, whose inoculation began last week.
To date, 91.3% of the target population – some 15 million people – have a full vaccination scheme and 8.9 million have received a booster dose.
The most widely used vaccine is CoronaVac, although Pfizer / BioNtech, AstraZeneca and Cansino are also administered to a lesser extent.
The pandemic, which had its most serious peak between last March and June and forced 90% of the population to be confined once again, has been under control for more than three months, although with slight rebounds that have not yet set off alarms.
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