Chile faces record cases for the second consecutive day with more than 9,400 positives

Chile scored this Sunday a new daily record of infections of Covid-19 for the second consecutive day after adding 9,454 new infected, leaving the total balance at 1.87 million infections.

According to information from the Ministry of Health, “the new confirmed cases increased by 144% compared to the previous week and 249% compared to the last 14 days”, due to the advance of the omicron variant that arrived in December.

The day before, the country also recorded a maximum number of infected (9,284), a figure even higher than the worst moments of the serious second wave that lasted between March and July 2021, which forced the borders to be shielded for half a year and to confine to 90% of the population.

The pandemic had been kept under control since then, with very low positivity rates -around 2%- and infections over a thousand, but in the last week, the cases and the positivity rate in the PCR tests have risen drastically.

In the last 24 hours, the national positivity rate was 8.91% -one of the highest in recent months- and 18 deaths from the virus were added, bringing the total number of deaths to 39,394.

Despite the progress of ómicron, the hospital network is not yet collapsed, although regional authorities in the north of the country have warned about the saturation of some medical centers.

In the last 24 hours, 411 patients were counted in intensive care units (ICU) and more than 337 beds available.

“The current situation shows us that vaccines are effective and reduce the risk of becoming seriously ill and dying from the virus,” stressed the Undersecretary of Health, María Teresa Valenzuela.

Chile has deployed one of the most effective vaccination campaigns in the world, reaching more than 92% of the population (19 million inhabitants) with the complete schedule and has already administered more than 11.8 million third doses.

This week, the Government began the administration of fourth doses to immunosuppressed people, which will continue in February with those over 55 years of age.

The most widely used vaccine is CoronaVac, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, although Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Cansino are also administered to a lesser extent.

The country still enjoys wide freedoms compared to the start of the pandemic and there is no municipality in total quarantine, although capacity has been restricted in dozens of cities.

For now, the borders remain open for residents and vaccinated tourists, who can enter following strict protocols through the international airport located in Santiago and various land points.