How are you all dealing with coronavirus and the restrictions... #2

Google Translate

Of course, I am not surprised at all. 27% of infected people were fully vaccinated! What will the Minister say now? Probably, "Sinovac is an excellent vaccine."

I don't know about the comment that cases are stabilizing, though. You really have to compare days of the week, last Monday to this Monday, etc. because on weekends fewer tests are done and make it look like things are improving. Last I saw, those day by day comparisons were not good.

The government decided that Sinovac is the hill they will die on. We will not be able to return to any sort of normalcy with this level of virus transmission. It will be masks and not being able to go anywhere and social distancing for the long haul. It depresses me.

We had our lifting of all restrictions delayed until July as predicted. Only about 50% have both vaccines and with Delta variant the 2nd one counts.

Big relief our son got his text invite today and booked for his 1st Pfizer tomorrow, remarkably efficient. So glad as next month he'll be likely working away from home face to face with the public.

Gonna use a new English idiom I learnt a little bit ago.
My poor Venezuelan family are gonna get their vaccines when the cows come home. 🙄

I saw President Maduro to be shot months ago. I wonder when in his plans are to provide people like my mother-in-law who is about to turn her 86, being vaccinated.

This world is always full of differences of opportunities. This is so obscene!

Well, tomorrow I will receive my shot. At 9:54 a.m. neither a minute above nor a minute bellow lol!

I wonder how in China who also received Sinovac, they seem to have the pandemic controlled. Something is missing, no?

@AzulOscuro - Being an authoritarian government system, China took draconian measures early on, seriously locking people down to stop the spread. For example: To Stop The Spread Of Coronavirus, China Takes Drastic Steps : Goats and Soda : NPR . China also has used restrictive entry controls. They have mostly relied those measures and have focused more on exporting vaccines rather than mass vaccination. From what I have read, China is only recently stepping up internal vaccinations.

I also don't think we know everything about what has gone on in China as far as the case numbers. They definitely control what data gets out and there are a lot of doubts about their statistics. I think it's very likely that the strict measures they took controlled things more than elsewhere before the vaccines were even an option. However, it's still hard to know for sure what the real numbers from there are, especially in the earlier days of the pandemic.

Supposedly, one of the reasons they wanted to use Chile and other countries in the region to test their vaccines is that there are so many active cases floating around. If the lockdowns did reduce cases a lot in China, it would have been hard to run trials.

In this part of the world it would not be possible legally or culturally to enforce such strict measures. The restrictions in many cases are more on paper than in practice for many reasons, including lack of resources to enforce them, low levels of social support and a proliferation of permits to go out (wrongly classifying employees as essential workers, the mobility permit for the vaccinated, etc.). I think here, Uruguay, Mexico and other countries that have been vaccinating at a relatively high rate put all their bets on the vaccines because they don't see many other options. An important percentage of these are Sinovac. Uruguay is in the same boat as us.


I am so sorry to hear about your in-laws. The vaccine disparity is criminal.

I understand your explanation.
And yes measures are being more on paper than in reality. Here, the same. While people like you or me are respecting safety measures, a noticeable part of the population did and are doing whatever they please. And legally they haven’t paid a single ****ing bill extended by the police (according to what I heard last week on the News).
This is like a bad teacher or a bad parent who try to set limits but they end up yielding.

I already tell it here, from now on I’m gonna do whatever I please.

Well, we got another load of 1 million Sinovac doses and of course the Minister had to come out to say "All vaccines we have bought are safe and effective."

Reactions on social media to this:
- "For the love of God, stop buying more of that vaccine!"
- "Why the hell aren't they trying to get us more Pfizer and Moderna?"
- "They keep ordering and ordering more of the least effective vaccine."
- "Why do we have the same % of vaccinated as the US and still have lockdowns?"

People are pissed off.


Now it is coming out that ICU bed occupation is increasing in the 70+ age group. They are the most vaccinated and were the first to receive vaccines. Supposedly the great success of the vaccines was fewer elderly in the ICU. The Health Minister now says more investigation needs to be done and said he has no data on whether the people in the ICU were vaccinated or not. For the last 3-4 weeks or so, they have made data available about the percentages of ICU admissions that were vaccinated or not. Now, suddenly the Minister has no idea.

The idea of a booster for people that have received Sinovac is "under study" and the Health Ministry only talks about buying more vaccines next year.

@rechu holy moly that is ridiculous getting more Sinovac! Do you have Delta variant in Chile now?

@AzulOscuro how did your vaccination go? Hoping you're doing okay.

Our son got his 1st Pfizer yesterday and seems symptom free, apart from a little tiredness maybe.

That's good to hear about your son, @Discombobulated. I hope you are doing well, @AzulOscuro.

Yes, they bought more Sinovac. It's becoming a joke. I think the government feels like it has to keep backing this garbage because they are trying to bring that Sinovac lab here to produce vaccines to sell to the rest of the continent. If no one wants the vaccine, the lab is a losing proposition. For all we know, the president and his family want to invest in the lab. Maybe he has promised the Health Minister that he will be the director. There's got to be something like that going on.

I just read that even Costa Rica refused donations of Sinovac, preferring Pfizer even if it takes longer to get everyone vaccinated.

Oh, and now we have this:
Hundreds of vaccinated Indonesian health workers get COVID-19, dozens in hospital | Reuters

Indonesia was supposed to be a success story for Sinovac due to some study on health workers. The study wasn't so convincing to me since they only followed the vaccine recipients for 28 days after full vaccination and the average age was 31, so they were relatively low risk in the first place.


The last I read, they haven't found the Delta variant here. However, I don't know how much sequencing they are doing. Supposedly the border closure has helped us with that. The main variants are P1 from Brazil and some sort of Andean variant that is making the rounds of the region. I'm not sure what they are called under the new system.

Well last week we were told only 2% in hospital were fully vaccinated now apparently it's 20% this week. Not quite sure what to make of that. It seems high to me.

Wow, that does sound high. Have you gotten any explanations? It doesn't sound like it . When they refer to vaccinated, is there any indication that they mean fully vaccinated, 14 days after the 2nd dose or do they include people with one vaccine or that have the 2nd dose but haven't passed the second dose. He he, inquiring minds want to know!

I really hope it's not that the vaccines are not very effective against the Delta variant. That would be very bad news for all of us. Here, the border being closed to most entries has supposedly kept it out for now, we can't keep that closure going forever.

Yes agree it would be good to know more specifics - no they haven't indicated if any of the people were 14 days or more past 2nd vaccine but they have said they'd had both doses. No explanations given for the increase other than for some people the vaccine just wont work very well and we are now confirmed as being in a 3rd wave so it's spreading again and finding the vulnerable like it does.

I too hope it's not to do with this Delta variant too. Going to have to watch and wait again. This feels never-ending though.

Wow. The Netherlands are dropping ALL measures except 1,5 m soon. And face masks when 1,5 m isn't possible. They are effing insane, with the delta variant spreading in Europe.

Do they really think people are going to either keep 1,5 m distance or wear a face mask in a night club?? Yeah, those are opening up as well suddenly I'm not looking forward to going back home as much anymore
Important detail: their numbers aren't even that low. Compared to Germany, they're not even doing that great. Numbers are still high.

Going back to the office is coming up soon as well. It'll be in shifts. Probably once every 4 weeks. I'm worried I'll feel even more lonely at the office between colleagues I've never met before and won't really get to know in this crazy situation. I'd rather stay home until things are truly back to normal.

I went well. I was vaccinated the same day as you son and I only felt the same symptoms as him. Same vaccine. 7th July, second dosage.
Thanks for your concern, and you also @rechu. Thanks.

Here, in my Community is happening the same. We went up the top of more contagious but they still don’t know if it’s because of the Delta variant.

Yes it depends how much sequencing has been done before you can know which variants are rising. I hope it isn't Delta because it seems to be very contagious.

Glad you had your Pfizer shot and all is well.

I had my 2nd AZ yesterday, it was very busy at the centre this time as they seem to be pushing all the appointments together at weekends now. I thought I had no effects at all this time but when I came home from work I had lunch and then fell heavily asleep where I was sitting!

Yeah, never-ending is right. I don't even let myself get my hopes up any more as far as when things will improve here. Supposedly the numbers over the last few days are encouraging, but those short-term movements never seem to last. Now it's winter, so people will be congregating indoors more. We had Fathers' Day yesterday and today is a holiday. Events like that always spike up the cases in 10-14 days. People aren't supposed to be having get-togethers in lockdown, but they still do. Honestly, no one cares any more. Even my friend who has generally been careful this whole time went over to her parents' house yesterday with her husband.

It's a lot harder to go back to normal activities than I realized. I asked a friend to meet up outside and long story short we are now meeting up at an indoor only horrible restaurant that I wouldn't have wanted to go to even before the pandemic. It's popular with families with kids, who can't be vaccinated even if they want to be. I also think that it's the kind of restaurant anti-vaxxers would go to. I am just so grossed out at the thought of sitting there and do not want to eat anything or breathe that air.

I really want to cancel. This has happened just about every time I have made plans that involves meeting indoors at a restaurant or coffee shop.

ETA: I have always been on the high maintenance side when it comes to food and drink and this pandemic is making it even worse. I am not sure how to fix this when I feel 100% justified due to Covid.

Hvert, I understand. We are far from that point, but I wonder how comfortable I will feel when things open up.

More stupidity from our government. They are increasingly recognizing that lockdowns are not working but imposing them at the same time. 10 municipalities in my region were moved out of lockdown after 90+ days, with higher cases than when they started, because "people are tired, it's not having an effect, etc." But, they left the other 42 municipalities locked down and added new lockdowns in other parts of the country. We were not a candidate because we had a few weeks of freedom in May, where they also recognized that lockdown here wasn't improving the situation.

Oh gosh that sounds stressful. I'm lucky I guess in that my very small group of friends are so understanding and like minded about being sensitive about arrangements. If one person doesn't feel okay about being indoors then we all meet outside. We've had some great picnics, something I hadn't done for years. Can you maybe suggest a picnic?

I actually went inside for my first sit down restaurant meal since March 2020 last week. It was very spaced, light, airy and high ceilings, scrupulously clean - like you I am extra picky these days. No way would I have gone if I wasn't 100% happy.

My husband always reminds me that they only keep soldiers on high alert for short periods because the human brain cannot maintain that vigilance for long periods of time. It's not how we're wired. I actually think the majority have done amazingly well to last as long as they have.

I really do feel for you.

rechu, sounds like the govt. is lifting lockdowns in places where cases continue to run high because no one is following the restrictions anymore and they don't want to be embarrassed. I am pretty sure that happened here last year. Cases started to go up but they didn't tighten up the lockdowns because so many people were resistant. People can only follow these strict rules for so long.

I got through last night, hopefully Covid free. The worker shortage in my area also has me on edge when it comes to dining out. People who are stressed out and short handed are more likely to take safety shortcuts imo.


I used to volunteer fairly frequently at trade shows, festivals, fairs, etc. I'm getting calls now to go back to that but find myself reluctant, especially with these new variants. A lot of it was food related and it just doesn't seem worth the risk.

@Discombobulated When we were finally sitting down, indoors, we both talked about how we preferred to meet outdoors - but when we were picking a place, he seemed so against anything outdoors that I figured he wanted to be in AC. I like the sounds of where you went a lot better than where we wound up!

Well, yesterday they moved forward 10 municipalities in the Metropolitan Region out of lockdown. They had all been in lockdown for over 90 days and only one had seen a slight decrease in cases. The others had all experienced increased active case numbers. The Health Undersecretary admitted they were doing it for reasons of "lockdown fatigue", not due to health indicators. The other 42 municipalities including mine are still in lockdown, or what masquerades for a lockdown here. We didn't get a reprieve since we went through something similar in May. 3-4 weeks and I am sure they will be locked down again as happened to us. There are a few places that have been locked down since March that didn't benefit from the Ministry's supposed generosity.

They say they are going to focus on testing and tracing in those areas and getting vaccination rates up. Some of those areas have really low vaccination rates. I don't know if I believe the vaccination rates they publish. For a while for my municipality it was shown that we had 100% of the target population vaccinated in all 50+ age ranges. Now, only 50-59 is showing 100%. The older age groups suddenly are lower, 70-80%


I think we all feel like we are constantly being jerked around with these twice weekly announcements, especially small businesses. Imagine you are a small restaurant and they say you are going into phase 2, which allows patio dining. So, you call your staff back, buy food and drink. In a week or two, they can send you back to lockdown and you lose any perishable food. You owe salaries even though in the first week or two of being open again, sales were probably slow. Once my municipality moved all the way to phase 3 in January. It lasted one week and we went back to phase 2. They didn't even give the changes a chance before they punished us and moved us back a phase. This is no way to run a country.


I wonder if the back and forth is leading to less compliance. If people knew the lockdown would be only three weeks or something, they might be more willing to comply. It was announced at one point that they would not have lockdowns longer than four weeks. That policy didn't last even four weeks!

Supposedly, next month there will be an announcement about what they are going to do about revaccinting the first people that got Sinovac in February since immunity seems to be waning, especially for the elderly. I am not sure what they will use. More Sinovac? I hope not. They seem to be reserving Pfizer for kids. We have a bunch of AstraZeneca sitting around because they raised the age for men to 45 after one clotting incident. The minimum age for women is 55. I guess if it's shown that a Sinovac-AZ mix can work, maybe they will use it on those that were vaccinated early. Most are over those age limits. My husband is 47, so he could potentially qualify for revaccination with AZ. He got his first vaccine in early February.

I heard even Brazil, which has an agreement to manufacture Sinovac is considering stopping purchases and moving to more Pfizer, etc.

Although, now it looks like cases have started to rise again in Israel, which is using Pfizer, due to the Delta variant. I am not sure what the breakout is as far as fully vaccinated/1 dose/0 doses there. They have vaccinated quickly, but haven't gotten to everyone yet.

Ugh, the Delta variant has arrived:


Google Translate

Sorry for the google translate, but you will get the idea:

After completing her isolation and testing negative after her arrival in Chile, the woman moved to Talca, and in an access control to the city she was given an antibody test in which she was positive , for which a PCR. When the origin was detected from where it came, it was decided to sequence, and there the Delta variant was finally detected.

At this time, she and her family are reportedly in isolation and all have had sequencing.
Faced with this case, the Minister of Health , Enrique Paris, affirmed in the Chamber of Deputies, while participating in a Chamber session to extend the validity of the State of Exception of Catastrophe, that the Institute of Public Health reported last night that the sequencing effectively tested positive , and recalled that they will strengthen the detection of variants. “We are going to try to increase this sequencing from 350 to 1,000 per week. We are signing an agreement to do so ” , he indicated.

So, she made it all the way to Talca from Santiago, about 250 km away. I wonder how she traveled and how many people she came in contact with. What is it with that region of the country (Maule region)? The first guy that brought the virus here in March 2020 was from San Javier, another town in Maule.