SANTIAGO – Chile ordered a mandatory total quarantine for the capital Santiago’s seven million people on Wednesday, after authorities reported a 60% spike in coronavirus infections in 24 hours, dealing a stunning blow to hopes the economy would soon reopen.
“The most severe measure I must announce is a total quarantine in Greater Santiago,” the location of 80 per cent of the country’s 34,000-plus confirmed cases, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.
Manalich said the lockdown – including in several areas where earlier confinement measures had been lifted – was necessary after 2,260 new infections and 12 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The lockdown – which come into force on Friday at 10:00 pm (0200 GMT Saturday) – means that people will be allowed to leave their homes only for essential reasons like buying food or medicine.
Chile had until now opted for a selective quarantine strategy in dealing with the pandemic. Curfews were imposed in Santiago and other cities, but quarantines were limited to areas with high incidences of infection.
Chile also has Latin America’s highest rate of coronavirus testing – 14,000 a day and around 200,000 overall.
However, the government had been increasingly concerned about rising infection numbers across the city of seven million people in the past 10 days, and last week ordered strict new confinement measures in three densely populated areas.
Health workers reported growing rates of infection in early May, just after the conservative government celebrated the fact that infections had “peaked,” citing a persistent daily rate of around 500 new cases.
Within a few days, however, officials began to speak of “The Battle of Santiago.”
“The month of May is being hard on our country and we have to take appropriate actions at the right time to stop this disease,” Manalich said. He added that the health system was able to cope, as deaths remain low, with 347 from COVID-19 since Mar 3.
The total number of coronavirus cases stands over 34,000 in Chile, with at least 346 deaths.–MercoPress
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