Chile
Starting April 24 France will order a strict 10-day quarantine for all travellers coming from Brazil in a bid to prevent the spread of a coronavirus variant first found in the South American county. Also, only people residing in France or holding a French or European Union passport will be allowed to fly to the country.
The same measures will also gradually be put in place by April 24 for people returning from Argentina, Chile and South Africa, where the presence of other coronavirus variants were detected, the prime minister's office said.
The Argentinean government on Friday formalized the suspension of flights from Brazil, Chile and Mexico, due to the increasing cases of Covid-19 in those countries, and the circulation of new strains. The new measure starts on Saturday.
The government's objective is to reduce the number of trips during Easter Week, a time when many citizens tend to travel around the country or abroad, which in this case is the main concern.
The UK has banned people who are from or have travelled through Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela in the last 10 days. The ban will come into force from Friday and is due to a new variant identified in Brazil. British, Irish and foreign nations may enter the country but must isolate for 10 days.
Mexico became the first country in Latin America to start vaccinating for Covid-19. The first person to receive one of the initial shipment of 3000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was intensive-care nurse María Irene Ramirez.
Shortly after Mexico started vaccinating, Chile and Costa Rico followed suit.
Antarctica has recorded its first cases of Covid-19 after 36 people got infected with the virus at a Chilean General Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme research base. Antarctica had previously been the only continent free of Covid-19.
Among those infected are 26 members of the Chilean army and 10 maintenance workers. They have been evacuated to Punta Arena, Chile and are currently in quarantine and in reportedly good conditions.
"Thanks to the timely preventive action … it was possible to relieve said personnel, who, after being subjected to a medical control and the administration of a PCR test ... turned out to be positive for Covid-19," the Chilean army said in a statement.
More countries are banning flights from the UK after the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant that is said to spread much faster. Canada is banning UK travellers for at least 72 hours. Several South American countries followed suit on Sunday, including Argentina, Chile and Colombia. British flights are banned from landing in the Republic of Ireland on Monday and Tuesday. After France suspended travel from and to the UK, both the Eurotunnel and Port of Dover were closed.
With massive participation in the plebiscite, citizens turned to the polls. There are celebrations in the Plaza Italia in downtown Santiago, and in various parts of the country. On the body that must write the new text, the option of the constitutional convention, jointly and integrated only by citizens elected for that purpose, is imposed with 78.8%
The polls opened in Chile this Sunday for a historic referendum on whether the country's constitution, which comes from the era of dictator Augusto Pinochet, will be discarded and replaced by a new charter to be formulated, one of the main demands of the protests that took over the country last year.
More than 14.8 million people can vote in 2,715 locations across the country, although those suffering from Covid-19 have been warned to stay away under threat of arrest.
Claudio Crespo, Chilean police special Special Forces commander, was detained early Friday over the blinding of the student Gustavo Gatica during protests in November 2019.
The psychology student Gatica, was blinded in both eyes by police rubber bullets during the protests against the government of President Sebastian Piñera.
Crespo, known as "G3", was discharged last June for manipulating the images recorded by his GoPro camera.
Tinder announced Wednesday that it has begun testing the ‘Face to Face’ chat feature in the U.S., Brazil, Australia, Spain, Italy, France, Vietnam, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Peru and Chile.
In a press release, Tinder says: "We recently surveyed our members in the US, and half of them have had video dates with a match off Tinder in the past month. Not only that, but 40 percent of Gen Z members wanted to continue using video as a way to decide whether to meet IRL in the future - even once their favorite date spot is open again"
The new feature was promised as a way Tinder evolves its business in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Chile's Finance Minister Ignacio Briones announced an emergency plan, totalling $12 billion, to citizen support and economic stimulus package to overcome the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The plan became a reality after the government reached a cross-party agreement in Congress this Sunday.
The government faces criticism from medical experts about the handling of the crisis, and last Saturday President Sebastian Pinera removed the health minister, Jaime Manalich.
Northern Chile has been hit with an earthquake of a magnitude of 6.8. The German research center for geosciences has stated that the epicenter was 62 km southwest of San Pedro de Atacama and close to several copper mines - none of which were damaged due to the earthquake.
The Chilean Ministry of Health announced Sunday the country reached 99,688 confirmed Covid-19 cases with a total death toll of 1,054.
According to the Ministry, only in May Chile had more than 83,000 new cases and 827 deaths.
Chilean offices said this Monday that around half of the Senate members and four state ministers have been placed in quarantine after coming into contact with at least three colleagues infected with Covid-19.
Last week, Chile's government imposed a total lockdown on the capital Santiago, which has recorded more than 80 percent of the country's total confirmed cases.