In view of a sharp decline in covid cases in Chile, the authorities have said that lockdown restrictions throughout the Santiago Metropolitan Region will be lifted on Thursday. The positivity rate in the past day dropped to 3.7 percent in the capital, and active cases have also declined, Health Minister Enrique Paris said at a press conference here on Monday.

"We are seeing a decrease in the attack of the virus, but that does not calm us and we have to keep working," he said. Starting July 8, 26 towns across the country will emerge from lockdown to advance to phase 2, which calls for social distancing restrictions on weekends only, reports Xinhua news agency. The towns include three in the Metropolitan region that were among the last to see cases recede.

The Chile Ministry of Health reported 2,852 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total infection tally to 1,572,608, and 146 more deaths from the disease, raising the fatality toll to 33,249.

Covid Roundup:  As on date, the worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (18,792,511), France (5,848,973), Russia (5,568,104), Turkey (5,440,368), the UK (4,947,274), Argentina (4,552,750), Colombia (4,375,861), Italy (4,263,797), Spain (3,866,475), Germany (3,738,862) and Iran (3,270,843), according to CSSE figures.

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