Mildred Caranto/The Santiago Times Staff
SANTIAGO – Authorities on Wednesday extended the COVID-19 quarantines to 42 communes of the Metropolitan Region and north of Chile as coroanvirus cases continue to rise in the South American country.
The measure will run until Friday, May 29 and includes the 38 communes of the RM and the cities of Iquique, Alto Hospicio, Radio Urbano de Antofagasta and Mejillones.
Health minister Jaime Mañalich said quarantines are also extended in Alto Hospicio in the Tarapacá region.
“We are extremely concerned about the Valparaíso region. Although it does not meet all the objective epidemiological criteria to take more drastic measures, the focus is on the port of San Antonio. In this sense, we have a permanent sanitary cordon and customs.
“We have also instructed Seremi to isolate anyone suspected of being in the initial phase of a coronavirus infection and, of course, any confirmed person, in healthcare residences, to allow us to generate stricter isolation, in the idea of that it is an adequate measure to avoid the increase of infections in the Valparaíso Region,” added the minister.
COVID-19 Report
Regarding the epidemiological situation at the national level, the Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza, reported that until yesterday at 9:00 pm, 4,038 new cases of COVID-19 were registered, of which 3,647 had symptoms and 301 were asymptomatic.
The total number of cases is 53,617, of which 22,504 are recovered. During the last 24 hours, 35 deaths were reported, totaling 544 to date.
“In general, they are people with chronic antecedents. We call for the care of the elderly and those who are undergoing treatment for chronic diseases. It is important that they keep their treatment active,” said Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza.
Regarding people admitted in different hospitals across the country, there are 904 people in intensive care units, of which 758 are connected to mechanical ventilation and 143 are in critical condition.
“We registered more than 120 admissions yesterday and have been able to attend to them through the Covid-19 Integrated Network, which has expanded the number of beds. This has allowed us to maintain occupancy levels of 83%. In addition to adding beds, we have made a transfer from Iquique as well as from Santiago to other regions to beds that are enabled in other regions,” explained the undersecretary of Assistance Networks, Arturo Zúñiga.
He added that in the Metropolitan Region the capacity of beds was increased to 1,200, doubling the installed capacity.
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