Chile’s Congress recently passed a bill to grant economic assistance to its citizens whose life has been severely affected in the recent past due to the Covid-19 crisis, according to the media.
The aid package is expected to consist of a $693 bonus for workers who have salaries up to $2,079 since 2019. The aid package is planned to gradually reduce for those having a higher income. The announcement comes following the Santiago international airport shut for a month and the curfew in the country has been increased by an hour. The new measures confine 16 million people under quarantine out of a total population of 18 million.
Assistance is also provided for prisoners and people with disabilities. They are to receive an additional aid of $140 and a 20 percent increase for Emergency Family Income (IFE) for people under phase one or two of the lockdown.
Sebastián Piñera, President of Chile had denied the claims by health experts that the government has eased down on its sanitary efforts. He stated that “a regrowth, a re-attack of the coronavirus throughout the world.” He further added “It is not something that only happens in Chile. We all know that new variants have emerged, new mutations of the virus, many of them are more contagious and cause more risks to the health of compatriots and the inhabitants of the whole world.”
Though Chile is considered to have a strong vaccination campaign, it has reported a total of 1,032,612 Covid-19 cases. This has also led to postponing the elections from April 11 and 12 until May 15 and 16. Health authorities reported that about 6,940,748 had received the first dose of vaccination earlier this week and about 3,846,294 have completed two doses.