Chile sets new record with 37,468 daily Covid cases

Santiago, Feb 5 (IANS) Chile set a new record for daily Covid-19 infections, after registering 37,468 cases in a day and topping 37,000 for the first time, for a total of 2,296,712 infections, the Ministry of Health has said on Friday.

It also announced that in the same period, 43 deaths associated with Covid-19 were reported, bringing the death toll to 39,867, Xinhua news agency reported.

The 24-hour Covid-19 positivity rate was 23.92 per cent nationally, and 23.95 per cent in the Santiago Metropolitan Region.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Enrique Paris explained on Friday that the virus "is producing an increase in cases worldwide, with 3 million cases recorded around the world yesterday."

In recent weeks, Chile has registered new peaks in infections, with over 35,000 new cases in one day and more than 125,000 active cases, driven by the spread of the Omicron variant of the virus.