Chile Coronavirus Update: Death Toll Skyrockets After Fresh Cases Get Registered

Chile released a revised death toll on Sunday, highlighting a steep rise in its current databases -- 653 additional COVID-19 related deaths were logged in the Latin American country, out of which 96 were fresh cases.

The rising numbers in Chile continue to be a matter of concern, with experts predicting a steeper rise in the fatalities in the coming weeks. “This is an adjustment we have to make and report, a commitment to legitimacy, especially when we’ve made a huge effort to search additional databases for information not present in the databases that we were using before,” said Health Minister Jaime Mañalich stressing upon how the data on deceased persons certified by the civil registry was being reviewed.

The reveal shows a jump of over 50% in the cases last week, despite the country being under a complete lockdown for the past three weeks. Chile will enter its fourth week of lockdown on Friday. Manalich, however, continued positive about the lockdown exercises in combating the spread of the virus. “The decision was made to supervise quarantine compliance in the metropolitan region much more intensively now, given the number of cases,” he said at a recent press briefing.

Mañalich, as per a recent report, also suggested that death certificate information would now be added: “in any way, directly or indirectly, it may be linked to COVID-19 as a cause associated with death.” Recently, the Chilean government also revealed its intent to go ahead with a plan to roll out certificates to COVID-19 survivors in order for them to resume work, despite WHO reiterating that there has been no evidence to testify that those who contract the virus are immune from being tested positive again.

Chile recorded 134,150 confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, as per Health Ministry data. The country is currently focussed on increasing the testing capacity, including the rapid saliva tests, to detect cases and provide an accurate picture of the spread. “We already know that saliva shows much more sensitive information than bronchial swabs, and this is safer for health personnel and more efficient,” said Manalich. The country has carried out 600,000 tests so far.