MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile's “mobility pass” has an impact on stock exchange and possibly on hosting Copa America

The freedoms granted by this pass “will be expanded according to the evolution of sanitary conditions,” Piñera promised.

The Government of Chile is working on the development of a so-called “mobility pass” which would grant people already vaccinated against covid-19 greater levels of freedom and mobility within their communes and allow travel between regions for those who are in quarantine, it was announced.

President Sebastián Piñera made the announcement Sunday evening at the Santiago airport, where he welcomed a shipment of 2.2 million doses of Chinese Sinovac vaccines. Piñera stressed that the freedoms granted by this pass “will be expanded according to the evolution of sanitary conditions.”

The Chilean Government is already advancing international talks towards “a Green Passport that grants greater freedom and mobility to Chilean citizens at an international level,” Piñera explained.

Chile has already vaccinated 9.5 million people with one dose and 7.6 million people with the two doses, which represents more than 50% of the target population for complete vaccination, which is 15.2 million. of the 19 million Chileans.

This week people between 26 and 29 years old will be able to be vaccinated in the country, and the next week those between 23 and 25 years of age. Chile has more than 1.3 million cases and more than 28,500 deaths after a 14-month pandemic. The Government intends to complete the vaccination campaign for the target population on June 30.

So far, the country has received more than 21 million doses of immunizers from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac laboratories and 489,600 through the Covax mechanism. The good rate of vaccination placed the country as a leader in this matter in Latin America. Infections, however, have bounced back in recent times and the daily positivity rate is currently 9.02% and active cases exceed 40,000.

But Chile also intends to use the Mobility Pass as a tool to persuade the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) that it can host the 15 Copa America matches that were going to be played in Colombia but needed to be rescheduled due to social and political unrest.

Chile's chances of being chosen for the occasion were given an unexpected boost when the Argentine province of Buenos Aires asked Conmebol for a postponement.

The Copa America was to be co-hosted by Colombia and Argentina and Argentine President Alberto Fernández had announced his country would consider hosting it in its entirety should Colombia not be able to do their part, which eventually happened. A decision by Conmebol is due as soon as possible, considering that the tournament is scheduled to kick off in Buenos Aires with a match between hosts Argentina and Chile on June 13.

But the Mobility Pass also had an impact Monday on Santiago's Stock Exchange, which completed its second straight day upwards, following a slump after leftwing candidates won the recent elections by a landslide. The Santiago Stock Exchange breathes after three consecutive falls in which it lost more than US $ 16,000 million

The IPSA index, of the main shares of the Santiago Stock Exchange, rose 0.86% to 4,114.92 points, while in the United States the Dow Jones gained 0.54%.

The Santiago Stock Exchange closed higher for the second consecutive day this Monday after the government announced the implementation of a mobility pass for those vaccinated against Covid-19 and in line with the advance of Wall Street, the main international benchmark in the market.

“The market received in a very good way the mobility pass for vaccinated people that the government announced and that will begin to operate from this Wednesday 26,” said Guillermo Araya, Renta4's studies manager. “Therefore, it is a reward for those who have been vaccinated and at the same time an incentive for those reluctant or lagging people who have not been vaccinated,” added Araya.