A woman receives a vaccine as part of the seasonal flu vaccination campaign for children and the elderly during coronavirus (COVID-19) in Santiago, Chile on April 13, 2021. REUTERS / Ivan Alvarado
Chile’s health authorities said on Thursday they believed a drop in record numbers seen by Andean people over the past week was a ‘stabilization’ of a second COVID-19 wave, thanks to strict closures and rapid vaccination program that a third of the population.
Health Minister Enrique Paris told reporters he hoped the 9,000 daily record cases reached last week were the pinnacle of the latest outbreak.
“Once we reach the peak, we do not expect a reduction, but a stabilization and then a return to smaller numbers of positive patients,” he said.
Chile has now vaccinated 50% of its 15 million target population with at least one dose of Pfizer or Sinovac-developed medicine, and 32.7% has given two doses, Paris said.
He said stricter closures that now cover more than 80% of the country, coupled with public awareness campaigns, should allow Chile to hold elections on May 15 to elect voters to draft a new constitution as well as local government officials . The election has been postponed from April.
Many people outside its borders are anxiously watching Chile’s experience of the pandemic to see how much its vaccination campaign – one of the world’s fastest and most comprehensive to date – will soften successive waves of the virus.
It will on Friday be one of the first countries in the world to release ‘real’ data showing how effective the vaccines have been in reducing infection, serious illness and death.
Health experts remain divided on whether the closures and vaccines will be enough to stop the second wave immediately, or whether the fresh strains of the virus, the limited vaccine effectiveness and the citizen’s challenge to sanitation will continue to increase the numbers.
Paula Daza, the country’s leading public health official, said the vaccines reduced infection rates and hospital admissions of older groups that were first induced.
“People under 50 represent 65% of confirmed cases (COVID-19) and 41% of those admitted to hospital,” she said.
Claudia Reyes, a 38-year-old ICU nurse at Santiago’s workers’ hospital, said they had seen an “exponential” increase in the cases of largely younger patients.
She said fatigue or indifference to the locks is evident among the general population, despite daily broadcasts about the severity of the second wave.
“There are so many people on the street, by public transport,” she said. “It feels like the population was better under control last year, but this time, regardless of the COVID situation, that there are fewer or no hospital beds left, people’s awareness is not in line with reality.”
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