Coronavirus cases in Chile have reached record levels, despite the launch of the vaccine

LONDON – Chile’s coronavirus vaccination campaign has been one of the fastest and most widespread in the world, but a recent rise in infections has raised concerns beyond its borders.

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

Only Israel and the United Kingdom, respectively, inoculated a larger share of their population with at least one dose.

However, Chile has experienced a sharp rise in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, even with the launch of world-renowned vaccines and strict blockages in place for much of the 19 million population.

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

The number of daily cases in Chile rose to a record high on April 9, rising to more than 9,000 for the first time since the pandemic began and significantly higher than the peak of nearly 7,000 last summer.

Health Minister Enrique Paris told reporters on Thursday that he hopes the increase in daily cases has now reached its peak.

“Once we reach this peak, we expect not a reduction, but a stabilization and then a return to a smaller number of positive patients,” he told Reuters.

Health experts say the latest increase in cases in the country has been partly driven by more virulent strains of the virus, a relaxation of public health measures, increased mobility and defiance of simple precautions – such as physical distancing. and wearing a mask.

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

Shops, restaurants and some holiday resorts have also been opened in an attempt to stimulate the country’s pandemic-affected economy.

However, as the launch of vaccination in the country advanced ahead of the majority, the spread of a more virulent strain of the virus – such as variant P.1, first discovered on trips to Brazil – has led to a substantial increase in cases.

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

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

“We will solve the problem that current vaccines do not have very high protection rates,” George Gao, general manager of the Chinese CDC, told an April 11 conference. He has since told the state media that his comments have been misunderstood.

Data from the late Covid vaccines in China remain unpublished, and available data on the CoronaVac vaccine vary. Brazilian studies have found that the vaccine is slightly more effective than 50%, significantly less effective than Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca, while Turkish researchers have reported an effectiveness of up to 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 in the country. However, crucially, they reported that one dose was only 3% effective.

“This would help explain why Chile – with one of the most robust vaccine launches in the world, but 93% of doses from China – has experienced a significant simultaneous expansion in cases and a much slower decline in hospitalizations and deaths compared to the first launches in Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States, “said Ian Bremmer, president of risk consulting firm Eurasia Group, in a research note.

“Chile and the United Arab Emirates are both considering implementing the third dose (hence a second booster shot) of the Chinese vaccine accordingly; a change in communications that will increase the vaccine’s hesitation for Chinese vaccines in a broader sense,” he said. Bremmer.

“I can’t stress this enough – for most countries, vaccines will not stop this wave of pandemics,” Carissa Etienne, director of PAHO, told a weekly news conference on Wednesday. “They are simply not enough to protect everyone in the countries at greatest risk.”

Etienne urged decision-makers in the region to implement “comprehensive strategies” to speed up the deployment of vaccines and stop transmission through the use of proven public health measures.

On April 14, America reported more than 1.3 million Covid infections and nearly 36,000 deaths last week, according to data compiled by the United Nations health agency.

To date, America has recorded 58.8 million cases and over 1.4 million deaths, making it the most affected region in the world.

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

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

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