Chile reduces quarantine period to 7 days for those infected by COVID-19

Chile announced this Monday that it is reducing the mandatory quarantine for those infected by covid-19 from ten to seven days due to evidence that omicron infections are milder and last less than other variants.

“This new omicron variant has proven to be much more contagious (…), but the clinical picture is mild-moderate and resolves more quickly,” explained the Chilean Undersecretary of Public Health, María Teresa Valenzuela, at a press conference.

Day “zero” for the start of confinement will be the first in which the patient presented symptoms or, in the case of asymptomatic patients, the first since the PCR test was taken, the official explained.

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The reduction of the quarantine occurs at a time when the pandemic is in full expansion and after the record for new daily cases in almost two years was broken on Sunday, with 9,454 infected.

Hospital pressure, however, remains very low, with a weekly average of 16 patients admitted to intensive care, compared to 243 patients hospitalized in April last year, when the health network was about to collapse and 90% of the population was preparing to begin a new confinement.

The omicron variant has caused a 55% increase in cases worldwide in the first week of January, but that “has not had an impact until today in an increase in deaths,” Valenzuela pointed out.

In the last 24 hours, Chile registered 8,904 new cases and 32 deaths, leaving the total balance since the start of the pandemic at 1.88 million infections and 39,426 deaths.

The national positivity rate -which was around 2% for months- reached 9.3% in the last 24 hours, while the active number of cases reached the historical record of 51,691 people who can currently infect.

The northern region of Tarapacá has the highest current incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by its neighbors Arica and Parinacota and Antofagasta and southern Magallanes.

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.

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.

The Government began last week the administration of fourth doses to immunosuppressed people and will begin vaccinating health workers on January 20, which will be followed by those over 55 in February. (I)