Chile announces news restrictions in Santiago after worsening incidence of Covid-19

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Government of Chile has announced on Monday that the Metropolitan Region, including the capital city of Santiago, will move back to phase 3 of the roadmap set by the authorities for the de-escalation of the pandemic due to the increase of cases and the rise in the incidence of coronavirus.

The entire Metropolitan Region, along with 14 other communes, will move back, as of Wednesday, to phase 3 of the plan outlined by the Government, after 929 cases have been detected in the last 24 hours for a total of 1,677 in the whole country.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Chile

“We are concerned about the situation in the Metropolitan Region, which in some days has exceeded 3 percent positivity of PCR tests. For this reason, today we will announce measures to be applied in the capital,” explained the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, according to Radio Bío Bío.

Chile currently has 9,973 active cases, the highest figure since July 20, when there were 10,400. With this Monday’s figure, the South American country has accumulated six consecutive days registering more than 1,000 cases daily.

On Monday, the health authorities have also announced that those over 55 years of age who do not have the booster dose “will have their Mobility Pass disabled and it will be reactivated once they have received the booster dose”, explained the Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza.

With this decision, Chile is following the controversial example of Israel and Australia by disabling the vaccination pass for people over 55 years old, indirectly forcing them to accept a booster shot even if they have already received two vaccinations.

There are still 1,251,375 people over 55 years of age vaccinated with the complete scheme who have not yet received the booster dose.