Congresssional greenlight for Chile’s pandemic aid for the poorest

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Chile’s Congress Monday passed a bill granting economic assistance to people in need, whose situation has worsened over the past few months due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The aid package consists of a 500,000 Chilean pesos (approximately US$693) bonus for workers who have had monthly salaries up to 1.5 million Chilean pesos (almost US$2,079) since 2019. The aid will decrease gradually for those with higher incomes.

The new measures were announced the same day the toughest measures ever began to take effect, with the closure for a month of Santiago’s international airport, the one-hour earlier beginning of curfew from 10 PM to 9 PM, and the confinement under quarantine of more than 16 million people out of a total population of 18 million.

Pensioners and people on disability subsidies are also to receive US$140 additional assistance. Simultaneously, the so-called Emergency Family Income (IFE) is increased by 20 percent for citizens under lockdown in phases one or two.

Despite a strong vaccination campaign, Chile reported a total of 1,032,612 infections this Monday and 23,677 overall due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which, with over 8,000 new daily cases, has also led to the postponement of the April 11-12 elections until May 15 and 16. Health authorities reported that by Monday, 6,940,748 people had received the first dose of the vaccine, while 3,846,294 had completed both doses.