MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Face masks again become mandatory in Punta Arenas because of Covid and respiratory viruses

Covid and respiratory disease outbreaks have made the use of face masks mandatory in windy Punta Arenas

Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales, southern Chile, have again reinstated the mandatory use of face masks in closed spaces and in open places where people can't keep a physical distance of at least one meter. Likewise massive events will have a maximum presence of 10,000 people with face masks, and there will also be limits to the Mobility Pass, unless space allows a one meter distance minimum.

The decision is a consequence of the sustained increase of Covid 19 cases in the Magallanes Region and long queues at clinics and hospitals for medical treatment of respiratory diseases

According to the Chilean Health ministry the increase of Covid 19 cases in Punta Arenas has jumped 35% in ten days, with 449 active cases and an average positive rate above 12%. Local sanitary staff are making some 500 tests every day.

The other respiratory viruses prevalent in the region are metapneumovirus and syncytial. Beds capacity in hospitals are 70% full with seven extreme Covid cases while pediatric beds are 55% occupied

The Chilean Health ministry is hopeful that with winter school holidays contagion will drop with a lesser viral circulation, but insist that all families involved in holiday activities with children must keep to strict prevention measures, and making sure that everybody complies with the vaccination protocol, since there is still 15,9% of the local population who have not complied.