Marcelo Montecinos
SANTIAGO – Health minister Jaime Mañalich was on live television earlier this week, telling Chileans that all respiratory infections would now be classified as Covid-19.
“Practically, the only virus circulating at this moment in the country is the virus of coronavirus” Mañalich was quoted by the media on Wednesday.
This at a time when Chile’s capital, Santiago, gets its first rainfall and close to sub-zero temperatures. This mild rainfall was all it took to cause a power outage in nine communities in the southern sector of Santiago.
Chile’s main power provider, CGE, told reporters that the outage could last two days.
Having no electricity could lead to many more people catching a cold.
Within 24 hours of the Wednesday’s announcement on how the government would now compute the number of active cases, the Seremi de Salud (Health Ministry) contradicted their boss, Jaime Mañalich, by saying there were 3 other viruses circulating in the Los Rios area.
While most of the western world is entering their summer season, Chile is facing a cold and rainy winter: In other words; cold season.
The obvious oncoming spike in reported confirmed Covid-19 numbers, due to “suspicious” cases now being classified as such, will undoubtedly lead to a continued lock-down of Chileans, and most likely a renewed wave of protests by those that are going hungry due to it.
