Chile tightens lockdowns as country exceeds 200,000 coronavirus cases

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS JUNE 17, 2020 / 12:54 PM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Chile tightens lockdowns as country exceeds 200,000 coronavirus cases

Aislinn Laing
1 MIN READ

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - The Chilean government on Wednesday announced a tightening of lockdowns and “maximum” movement restrictions in its capital Santiago as the country´s confirmed coronavirus caseload exceeded 200,000.

The total number of coronavirus cases was 220,628 cases, the health ministry said in a briefing, after officials said yesterday they had discovered 31,412 confirmed cases that had not been added to the tally previously, and announced 4,757 freshly-confirmed cases overnight.

In a joint briefing by the health, interior and defence ministries, the government said residents of Santiago would be granted permission to leave their homes just twice a week instead of the five times amid concerns that lockdowns of up to three months in some parts of the capital had not succeeded in stopping the spread of the virus.

Reporting by Aislinn Laing; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-chile/chile-tightens-lockdowns-as-country-exceeds-200000-coronavirus-cases-idUSKBN23O2WB

[malaise]

1. South America is going to be ravaged by Covid-19

Damn!

[ProfessorGAC]

2. They've Only Got 19 Million People

There already above 1% and looking at Worldometer charts, doesn't look like they're peaking yet.
They are claiming 3,615 deaths though.
Seems suspiciously low. Death to confirmed case proportion is 1.8% in Chile, >5% worldwide?
And in much of Chile, it's winter now.
Could get really bad.

[sandensea]

4. Exactly. It's common knowledge in Chile that many "recovered" cases (5,000+) are actually deaths.

Well, I guess that's one way to recover from this.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Yes, Just Pretend Otherwise

Like PINO, the master of tautology, "If we stop testing, we will have no cases."
Chilean Officials: "They died of COVID? No they didn't! LA LA LA LA LA !"

[sandensea]

6. A regular Yogi Berra

Except Yogi, to my knowledge, never bankrupted a bank (Bank of Talca scandal).

[sandensea]

3. That's the equivalent of 3.8 million in the U.S. (70% higher than the current U.S. total)

It's gotten so bad in Santiago in particular, that a Chilean congressman recently floated the idea of asking neighboring Argentina to take in some of their intensive care cases.

Because Fernández acted quickly (over rabid right-wing opposition, I might add), Argentina may not have nearly a severe a situation: only 7% as much as Chile, on a per capita basis.

But they're certainly not prepared to take in anyone from Chile - which would mean also taking in Brazilians (closing in on 1,000,000 cases), Bolivians (where they're burning bodies in the streets), etc.

Argentina has already taken in over 2 million immigrants from the neighboring countries over the past 50 years - leading to a sharp increase in the slum population, and feeding far-right sentiment besides.

Piñera should instead ask Cheeto - assuming Stephen Miller says yes.

Thanks for finding and posting this, Eugene. All this is definitely having foreign policy implications, as you know better than most.