“People can be rest assured of the supply and arrival of the vaccines. On Monday we received 2,106,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine, totaling 9,971,476 of this vaccine to date,” said Health Minister Enrique Paris from the Arturo Merino Benítez Airport. Together with Public Health Undersecretary Paula Daza and Healthcare Networks Undersecretary Alberto Dougnac, he received the fifth shipment of vaccines from the Chinese laboratory.
In addition to the 734,175 doses from the Pfizer-BioNTech laboratories, a total of 10,705,651 doses have arrived to Chile, a number which is due to increase over the next few days with the arrival of 224,250 additional doses.
In regards to the vaccination plan, up until 11:00 a.m. on Monday, March 8, 4,085,683 people have been vaccinated, of whom 2,629,077 are over 60 years old. Furthermore, over the course of the day, between first and second doses, 101,933 people have been inoculated.
As for the progress of the pandemic, Minister Paris highlighted that today there are three regions with increases in cases and that over the past seven days the Coquimbo, Metropolitan, O´Higgins and Biobío regions have experienced an even greater increase. “29% of our cases nationwide originate from Active Case Search, of which 30% are asymptomatic,” specified the Minister.
Undersecretary Daza informed of new measures as part of the surveillance procedures for travelers that are being carried out in Chile. “According to international evidence, what we have witnessed with the different variants of the pandemic in Chile and in accordance with recommendations of the Advisory Council, a few days ago we have begun to increase the Active Case Search testing of passengers arriving from Brazil where the P.1 variant was detected and, according to scientific data, is known to be a more contagious variant,” she said.
For the above reason, starting on Thursday, March 11, at 5:00 a.m., all passengers who have been in Brazil in the past 14 days will be taken to healthcare residences where they will be given a PCR test. If the result is positive, that person will be isolated at that location. In the case of a negative test result, the passenger will have to complete 14 days in quarantine at their final destination.