© Stephen Felix
Metro World News
SANTIAGO (AP) — Chile will no longer require a negative PCR test to enter the country and the validation of vaccines will be voluntary, although to move within national soil you need a mobility pass that is only obtained following completing the vaccination scheme, they announced health authorities on Tuesday.
The measures are added to another that rules out the use of masks in open spaces where a physical distance of one meter can be maintained. The provisions will take effect next Thursday.
After defining that Chile is in a Level 1 Alert on all its borders, which considers that there is community transmission of known variants of the new coronavirus in the country, the relaxation of the measures to enter the country and the permanence of random tests were announced. .
From Thursday it will only be mandatory to complete a document called a health passport and if you do not reside in Chile, the person must have insurance from $30,000 that covers illnesses derived from COVID-19.
The relaxation in the entry protocols is the second high-impact measure adopted by the government of President Gabriel Boric in a country of 19 million inhabitants that has completed the vaccination of 94% of its population, where 16.4 million people received the least one booster dose.
In the thirty border crossings with Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, the authorities recommended the application of antigen tests, because the storage of PCRs has more demands.
Before the application of the Level 1 alert, to enter Chile it was mandatory to present a negative PCR of a maximum of 72 hours and foreigners without residence in Chile had to validate their vaccines before the Ministry of Health.
In the last week, daily infections averaged 3,150 cases and positivity bordered on 5.1%, although it was the rates of the last three days that brought positivity closer to 5.0%. The World Health Organization points out that a percentage of less than 5% for 14 consecutive days is an indicator to estimate that the pandemic is under control while surveillance of suspected cases is maintained.
Chile registers 3.5 million infections in two years and 57,000 deaths.
