Chile: despite a very advanced vaccination, Santiago is reconfiguring itself in the face of an outbreak of Covid-19
Chile has one of the best vaccination rates in the world, behind Canada, the United Kingdom or Israel.
Here, a caregiver applies a dose against Covid-19 in Santiago, June 3, 2021. © Javier Torres, AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In Chile, 45% of the Chilean population has already received two doses of the vaccine against Covid-19, one of the best rates in the world, behind Canada, the United Kingdom or even Israel.
And yet, this is not enough to curb the epidemic in the country.
The intensive care units are saturated with patients and the number of cases has been on the rise for at least two weeks.
The authorities ended up ordering a new re-containment for the entire Santiago region from Saturday, June 12.
Publicity
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With our correspondent in Santiago
,
Justine Fontaine
For several days, the Order of Physicians has been alerting and asking for more restrictions, especially in the capital
where the situation is critical
, as explained by its regional president, Francisca Crispi, in a video: “
The intensive care beds are busy. 99%, that is to say 2,500 beds today. Unheard of in the country's history.
"
These are mostly
unvaccinated patients
. Jeanette Vega, former Secretary of State for Health and consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), explains one of the reasons for the current health situation: “
The vaccine that is used here in the majority, Sinovac , is very effective against severe cases and death, but less against contagion itself. And nearly half of the population still needs to be vaccinated.
"
In downtown Santiago, the re-containment comes as no surprise:
a large part of the capital was already confined
.
But the measure is no longer as effective, notes Alejandro Maturana, 29 years old: “
It's less respected than before, my neighbors for example have parties all the time, they don't care now.
And then despite the confinement, people go out to work anyway if they have no money.
"
Finally, caregivers highlight the lack of checks by the authorities compared to last year.
Since the start of the pandemic, Chile has deplored 30,329 deaths linked to Covid-19 for 19 million inhabitants.
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Read also: Chile: the government is implementing a health pass, despite increased contamination
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Chile
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