Why Sinovac’s foreign customers are watching Chile’s Covid-19 experience amid mounting concern over Delta variant
- The South American country has vaccinated more than 60 per cent of its population and has recently seen cases fall
- But an earlier spike raised questions about the effectiveness of the Chinese firm’s CoronaVac product and scientists say other factors will also have an impact
Chile is being looked to as a bellwether for Covid-19 control as cases drop dramatically in Latin America’s most vaccinated county, but concerns about the impact of the Delta variant loom.
Over 60 per cent of Chileans are now fully vaccinated, a higher proportion of the population than the United States, the majority with Sinovac’s CoronaVac.
Daily infections have fallen from more than 8,900 new cases on June 6 to less than 1,500 in recent days, according to World Health Organization data, a significant shift from recent surges even as an vaccine programme was rolled out. The number of deaths has also fallen.
“The most intuitive explanation for this quick decrease in the number of cases is that it is the result of a large share of the population having received their full vaccination schedule,” said Eduardo Undurraga, an assistant professor at Chile’s Pontificia Universidad Católica who researches vaccine effectiveness.
But Undurraga said vaccination alone did not explain the decrease and pointed to other measures that remained in place, including mandatory masks, a ban on large gatherings and nighttime curfews.