Chile – with the world's third highest vaccination rate, yet infection rebounded – a lesson the world should learn from (1 of 2)

Recently CNN.co.jp reported the following:

ワクチン接種率世界３位、それでも感染再拡大　世界がチリに学ぶべき教訓 (1 of 2)

2021.04.16 Fri posted at 13:33 JST

 （ＣＮＮ） 世界に先駆けて新型コロナウイルスのワクチン接種を開始した南米チリ。明るい兆しが見え始めるはずだった同国で再び感染者数が急増し、厳格な規制が再導入されている。

チリの人口は１９００万人。政府はパンデミック（世界的大流行）が始まってからわずか数カ月で医薬品会社と合意を取り付け、今年初めの時点で、まだ周辺国で接種も始まらないうちから世界で筆頭級の接種率を達成した。

英オックスフォード大学の統計によると、１４日現在、チリの人口１００人当たりのワクチン接種率は３８．９４人と、イスラエル（６１．５８人）、英国（４７．５１人）に続いて世界で３番目に多く、米国（３６．１３人）を上回る。

ところが流行が収束する様子は見えない。先週は２日連続で、１日当たりの症例数が流行が始まって以来の最多を更新した。新規の症例数は８日が８１９５例、９日は９１７１例だった。今週に入って１日当たりの新規の症例数は減少に転じたが、１２月から始まった増加傾向は現在も続いている。

 米ジョンズ・ホプキンス大学の統計によると、チリの症例数は累計で１１０万人に迫り、約２万５０００人が死亡した。

ＣＮＮが取材した保健当局者や専門家、ジャーナリストは世界が学ぶべき教訓として、クリスマスの集まりや新年祝いのパーティーに始まり、全学校やショッピングセンターの再開を一貫して推し進めたこと、ワクチン接種が早いペースで進んだことによる安心感、同国で主に使われている中国シノバック製のワクチン効果が期待を下回ったことなどを挙げている。

チリで２番目に人口が多いバルパライソ州の保険局長だったフランシスコ・アルバレス氏は、年末のホリデー期間に新型コロナ規制が緩和されたことが始まりだったと指摘する。

「クリスマス前はみんなが家族全員でプレゼントの買い物に出かけ、ショッピングモールは混雑する。１月からは州を越えて休暇に出かけることが認められ、ウイルスが一緒に移動した」とアルバレス氏は説明する。チリの１月は夏の観光シーズンに当たる。

(to be continued)

 Translation

(CNN) Chile in South America was among the first in the world to begin vaccination against the new coronavirus, and where bright signs should have begun to appear, yet its number of infected people had skyrocketed again and strict regulations had to be  reintroduced.

Chile had a population of 19 million. The government reached an agreement with a pharmaceutical company just months after the pandemic began. By the beginning of this year, it had reached one of the highest rates in the world, before its neighboring countries began vaccination.

According to the statistics of Oxford University in the UK, as of 14th, the vaccination rate per 100 people in Chile was 38.94 people, which was the third in the world after Israel (61.58 people), the United Kingdom (47.51), exceeding the number in the United States (36.13).

However, it did not seem that the epidemic was weakening. Last week for the second consecutive day, the number of cases per day reached the highest level since the epidemic began. The number of new cases was 8195 on the 8th and 9171 on the 9th. The number of new cases per day began to decline earlier this week, but the upward trend that began in December was still continuing.

According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, the total number of cases in Chile had approached 1.1 million, and about 25,000 people had died.

Health officials, experts and journalists interviewed by CNN had lessons for the world to learn: pointing out that starting with the Christmas gatherings and New Year celebrations, the consistently pushing for the reopening of all schools and shopping centers, and a sense of security due to the rapid progress of early vaccination, together with the fact that the vaccine produced by China Sinovac which was mainly used in the country, was less effective than expected.

Francisco Alvarez, the insurance director of Chile's second most populous state Valparaiso, pointed out that the new corona regulations had begun to be relaxed during the holidays at the end of the year.

Alvarez explained that "Before Christmas, everyone went shopping for gifts with the whole family, and the shopping malls were crowded. From January, going on vacation across states was allowed, and the virus traveled with them".  January in Chile is the summer tourist season.

(to be continued)