MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile's Covid 19 death toll has risen to 5,509, including 162 reported on Sunday

Magallanes Region reported twelve new cases on Sunday, bringing the total contagion cases since the first tested positive to 1,435

Chile on Sunday reported a total of 271,982 coronavirus infections since the outbreak began in the country, and 4,216 in the last 24 hours, of which 12 correspond to the Magallanes region in the extreme south of the country.

The COVID-19 death toll climbed to 5,509 after 162 patients died of the disease in the previous 24-hour period, the health ministry said.

The number of new infections detected in the prior 24 hours was 4,216, with the vast majority of 3,396 cases presenting symptoms, but a substantial number of 402 cases showing no symptoms at all, the ministry said.

Some 34,263 cases are considered active nationwide, either receiving treatment or remaining in isolation at 151 special isolation centers set up by the government.

“The virus is hitting us very hard” in Latin America, Health Minister Enrique Paris said at a press conference on Sunday.

Chile has had a state of catastrophe in place, including a curfew in hard-hit areas since late March that has seen soldiers and police officers deployed in the streets to enforce lockdown orders and other restrictions. Despite those measures, the outbreak spiked in May.

Magallanes Region since the first reported positive test has registered 1,435 contagion cases, and so far local sanitary authorities have made 8,074 swab tests