Fresh lockdown for 13 million Chileans despite vaccine success

Tuesday, March 23rd 2021 - 17:02 UTC

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The Chilean government has announced a new series of confinement measures for some 70% of the country’s population following a 36% hike in Covid cases over the last two weeks.

The measures, which will come into force on Thursday 25, will affect 42 counties, 21 of which are in the Santiago Metropolitan region.

The measures come despite Chile boasting one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in Latin America. According to figures from the Chilean Ministry of Health, some 5.7m people had received the first dose of the vaccine as of 23 March, and a total of 2.9m had been fully vaccinated.

The figure means that some 15 in a hundred people have been fully vaccinated compared to the 1.72 in a hundred for the rest of South America.