Chile's capital of Santiago will be subject to strict quarantine and "maximum" movement restrictions after the Government announced on Wednesday new control measures to fight the Coronavirus spread.
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The Chamber of Representatives approved and issued legislation to punish those who violate the sanitary measures imposed by authorities. In regards to this, the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention Katherine Martorell provided further information on the restrictions and said that "people will only be able to go out twice a week to make essential arrangements and some exceptions (instead of the five times permitted until now)."
Regarding companies, she stressed that "those abusing these permits are committing a crime. Auditing will be relentless."
"New sanitary measures: As of this June 19 at 10:00 pm, Los Andes, San Felipe, Rancagua, Machalí and the urban area of Curicó are under quarantine."
Even though authorities ruled out the possibility of putting the capital in a "hibernation" state, total quarantine was renewed. Also, Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, San Antonio, Iquique, Calama were put in lockdown as well.
" (Hibernation)it's not possible to implement as we would be short of basic services," Health Minister Enrique Paris warned." We would be without food, without elderly care services, without medicine distribution and with a paralyzed city (...) This could even aggravate the health situation of the community."
According to numbers released by Chile's Health Minister, so far there are 220.628 confirmed cases, with 3.615 deceases.