Chile’s health minister resigned Saturday as the coronavirus pandemic is hitting the country hard despite a quarantine in place in the capital for more than a month.
The departure of Jaime Manalich was announced by President Sebastian Pinera.
The health crisis has claimed more than 3,000 lives in Chile,On Friday, Chile reported a record for new infections and deaths over a 24-hour period — 6,754 and 222, respectively.
“The situation in our country continues to rise, above all in the metropolitan region,” health ministry official Arturo Zuniga said Friday.
Infections have risen steadily in Chile even though it began taking emergency measures in February — including widespread testing and the closure of borders and schools — making it one of the first Latin American countries to do so.
The capital Santiago and its seven million people were placed on lockdown more than a month ago; they were joined on Friday by the cities of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.
Nearly half of Chile’s population of 18 million is now under strict confinement.
The country initially had imposed selective quarantines on areas with high incidence of the coronavirus.
But many poorer Chileans continued going to work — out of economic necessity — and a sharp resurgence in mid-May forced the government to order a strict lockdown.
