translated from Spanish: Mañalich ruled out suspension of massive events by coronavirus: “We have no community transmission of the disease”

The Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich, gave further details about the first case of coronavirus that was confirmed in Chile, and that it is a 33-year-old physician, from San Javier, in the Maule Region. In this sense, the head of portfolio called for peace of mind and assured that the health system is prepared to deal with the disease. He even exemplified the flu cases of previous years, ensuring that the goal of the vaccination campaign against this pathology in the coming weeks is to avoid a double threat. “The point of overtaking it is that we don’t have two viruses circulating during the winter and making people go through two serious respiratory diseases,” he said, adding that “we want to cleanse our population of the risk of having an flu.” On the other hand, he insisted that until now “we have no community transmission of the disease”, adding that “we are calm, in addition to all the operatives. There had been a drill. I think we’re on a good footing to meet this challenge.” On the other hand, consulted by Cooperative about mass events, he ruled out any kind of suspension. “We are not in the Community transmission phase, when the virus is already circulating freely in connationals that can spread in the Metro, in the cinema, anywhere, we are in ‘Phase 2’ yet, where all the effort is concentrated in imported cases,” he reiterated.

Original source in Spanish