Chile Surpasses Italy in Coronavirus Infections

Chile's authorities Monday reported that the country already has 242,355 coronavirus infections, so it has surpassed Italy in the number of positive cases.

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All forecasts indicate that the country will surpass Spain in a few days as the seventh nation worldwide with the highest number of infected people (246,272). 

Chile has also accumulated 4,479 deaths. To that figure must be added 3,000 people who died of respiratory ailments, who did not received a PCR test.

Including these 3,000 dead people, the number of deaths would rise to 7,364.

Health sector's unions and opposition political parties called for an urgent meeting to discuss a change of strategy and avoid major tragedies. 

"The government cannot stand idly by in the face of the enormous crisis that COVID-19 is signifying for Chile," a group of scientists warned.

The outlook in Chile is bleak. "If drastic and immediate confinement is not decreed, we could reach 70,000 deaths," the experts added.

In the government's management of the crisis, there was a lack of transparency, a denial of effective collaboration between the scientific and health communities, and an irresponsible search for so-called herd immunity. 

"Authorities abandoned primary care and were unable to effectively isolate the sources of infection," scientist community assured in a statement.