70 percent of Chileans under new lockdown amid increase in COVID cases

Most of the Chilean people woke up Thursday under a lockdown that seeks to reduce infections during its second wave of the pandemic, which maintains ICU beds occupancy at full capacity.

Authorities announced Thursday that the in the greater Santiago, five of its eight million inhabitants are under lockdown and the other three million will be confined from next Saturday.

Transit in the capital in the first hours of the day was reduced by security checkpoints reviewing permits of workers.

Tens of thousands of these collective permits were requested by companies for their workers that are said to be essential.

In addition, another million people requested personal transit authorizations.

So far this month, the new infected per day fluctuated between 5,000 and 6,000 cases.

The authorities said that Chile doesn't have a shortage of ventilators, but it does lack qualified health personnel to operate them

They have relied on retired doctors, nurses and technical health personnel to rejoin the services and also invited foreign professionals and students of the last years of medicine.

The South American country has already vaccinated six million people, almost half of them with the second dose, but it's still too early for immunizations to be reflected in health figures.

Chile has registered more than 954,000 COVID-19 cases and 22,500 deaths.