Coronavirus cases in Chile reached record levels despite the vaccine rollout

LONDON – Chile’s coronavirus vaccination campaign is one of the fastest and most comprehensive in the world, but a recent spate of infections has sparked concern beyond its borders.

Nearly 40% of the South American country’s total population has now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to statistics compiled by Our World in Data, which reflect some of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

Only Israel and the UK have more of their populations vaccinated with at least one dose.

Nonetheless, Chile has endured a sharp rise in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, even with the world-renowned rollout of vaccines and strict lockdowns for many of its 19 million residents.

The regional director of the Pan American Health Organization has since stressed that vaccines will not be enough for most countries in the region to prevent rising infection rates.

The number of daily cases in Chile rose to a record high on April 9, above 9,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic and well above the peak of nearly 7,000 recorded last summer.

Health Minister Enrique Paris told reporters on Thursday that he hoped the rise in the number of daily cases had now peaked.

“Once we hit that peak, we don’t expect a reduction but a stabilization and then a return to a smaller number of positive patients,” he said, according to Reuters.

Health experts say the latest increase in the number of cases in the country was caused in part by more virulent strains of the virus, a relaxation of public health measures, increased mobility, and defying simple precautions – such as physical aloofness and wearing one. mask.

Chile’s center-right government, led by President Sebastian Pinera, had ordered the closure of the country borders from March to November 2020, with few exceptions, before a decision was made to reopen them to international passengers late last year.

Shops, restaurants and a number of holiday resorts were also opened to boost the pandemic-hit economy.

But while the rollout of vaccinations in the country has been ahead of most, the spread of a more virulent strain of the virus – such as the P.1 variant, first discovered in travelers from Brazil – has led to a significant increase in the number cases.

Questions have also been raised about the efficacy of vaccines, given the widespread use of CoronaVac in Chile, the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Chinese firm Sinovac.

It comes after the head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month that China may need to replace its Covid vaccines or change the way they are delivered to make them effective enough.

“We will solve the problem that current vaccines do not have very high levels of protection,” George Gao, director general of China’s CDC, said at a conference on April 11. He has since told the state media that his comments were misunderstood.

Late-stage data from the Chinese Covid vaccines remains unpublished, and available data from the CoronaVac vaccine has varied. Brazilian studies found the vaccine to be just over 50% effective, significantly less effective than that of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca, while Turkish researchers have reported efficacy as high as 83.5%.

A study published by the University of Chile earlier this month reported that CoronaVac was 56.5% effective two weeks after the second dose was administered in the country. Crucially, however, they also reported that one dose was only 3% effective.

“ This would help explain why Chile – with one of the world’s most robust vaccinations, but 93% of the doses coming from China – has experienced a simultaneous significant increase in the number of cases, and a much slower decline in the number of hospitalizations and hospitalizations. deaths compared to the early rollout in Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States, ”said Ian Bremmer, chairman of risk consultancy Eurasia Group, in a research note.

“Chile and the United Arab Emirates are both considering implementing a third dose (ie a second booster shot) of the Chinese vaccine accordingly; a change in communication that will increase vaccine reluctance to use the Chinese vaccines more broadly,” Bremmer said .

“I cannot stress this enough – for most countries, vaccines are not going to stop this wave of the pandemic,” said Carissa Etienne, PAHO director Wednesday at a weekly press conference. “There are simply not enough to protect everyone in the countries at greatest risk.”

Etienne urged policymakers in the region to implement “comprehensive strategies” to accelerate vaccine roll-out and halt transmission using proven public health measures.

On April 14, America reported more than 1.3 million Covid infections and nearly 36,000 deaths in the past week, according to data collected by the United Nations Health Service.

To date, America has had 58.8 million cases and more than 1.4 million deaths, making it the worst affected region in the world.

“We are not acting like a region in the middle of an worsening outbreak,” said Etienne of PAHO, who described South America as the “epicenter” of the virus.

In addition to relaxed restrictions in some areas, Etienne said that new and highly communicable variants of the virus have led to a sharp acceleration in the number of cases. Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and some parts of Bolivia are currently reporting a sharp increase in the number of infections.

Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile are also experiencing a continued increase in Covid cases, Etienne said.