I want to announce some very good news. Health Minister Ximena Aguilera announced that today, for the first time in 1,144 days, since Chile began to record deaths from COVID-19, we have had no deaths caused by this disease. She added that this news comes at a time when the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the end of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
The minister emphasized the relevance of this milestone. “Thanks to the control and prevention measures we have deployed, the vaccination campaign and the immunity that has occurred due to community contagion, there is a high level of protection among the population that has led to a reduced number of hospitalizations. We have an increasingly more controlled situation, which has meant zero COVID-19 deaths for the first time.”
The health minister also stated, “we hope that this situation will continue to be repeated in the coming days; however, deaths may occur again, but we hope that it will be a low number.”
She added that “the measures to protect the population remain necessary, as mentioned by the director of the WHO. The fact that the emergency has ended, or that today, for the first time since the first COVID-19 deaths occurred, we have a day without deaths due to this virus, means that we are gaining control. But this is because all prevention measures are in place, including, in particular, vaccination of the most at-risk groups.”
Finally, the health minister said, “COVID-19 and its virus, SARS-CoV-2, have given us many surprises. At this moment, we are in a fairly controlled situation, even globally; however, we maintain a state of continuous vigilance and the application of measures like the voluntary inoculation of the population and respiratory hygiene, because this virus can present variations, and in these circumstances new strategies must be adopted.”