A medical worker takes a swab sample from a senior resident for COVID-19 test in San Miguel of Santiago, Chile, July 7, 2020. (Chilean Health Ministry/Handout via Xinhua)
Chile declared a state of catastrophe months ago to better enforce lockdown and social distancing measures with the help of the army and police force, including a nighttime curfew.
SANTIAGO, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Chile on Wednesday reported a total of 303,083 people have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak began.
The death toll climbed to 6,573 after 139 patients died in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.
Over the same 24-hour period, tests detected 2,064 new cases of infection.
Some 24,807 cases are considered to be active while 271,703 patients have recovered.
Since large-scale testing and tracing was launched in March, the healthcare system has processed 1,220,790 tests, with 10,464 tests carried out in the previous day alone. Some 24.83 percent of the tests have been positive.
Chile declared a state of catastrophe months ago to better enforce lockdown and social distancing measures with the help of the army and police force, including a nighttime curfew. ■
