Santiago, Jan 2 Chile's Ministry of Health reported 3,588 new coronavirus cases, the highest single day spike since July 5 (3,685), raising the overall infection tally to 612,564.
In the daily pandemic report, Minister of Health Enrique Paris said on Friday that 52 more patients succumbed the disease, increasing the death toll to 16,660, reports Xinhua news agency.
Chile has seen a 14 per cent rise in new cases in the last week, and a 31 per cent rise in 14 days, with a second wave of outbreaks forecast for January potentially seeing a peak of up to 9,000 new cases a day, said Paris.
Currently, 794 people are hospitalized in intensive care units (ICU), including 611 on ventilators and 68 in critical condition.
Chile last week began to vaccinate essential healthcare workers, and aims to immunize all high-risk groups in the first quarter of the year.
( With inputs from IANS )
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