Chile

SANTIAGO, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Chile has fully vaccinated 78.34 percent of its target population against COVID-19, or 11,908,045 people, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday.

So far, 13,062,630 people have received their first vaccine dose, or 85.93 percent of the target population, Health Minister Enrique Paris reported during a press conference.

Nationwide, 24,471,952 vaccine doses have been administered from the more than 27 million doses of vaccines that have arrived in the South American country to date.

SANTIAGO, July 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Delegates chose a woman from Chile’s majority indigenous Mapuche people to lead them in drafting the country’s new constitution – a dramatic turnaround for a group that is unacknowledged in the country’s present rule book.

SANTIAGO, July 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Chile officially starts writing a new constitution Sunday to replace the one it inherited from the era of dictator Augusto Pinochet and is widely blamed for deep social inequalities that gave rise to deadly protests in 2019.

The country’s biggest protests in 30 years of democracy won Chileans a referendum last October in which a majority voted for a new constitution to be drawn up by a body of elected members.

SANTIAGO, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Chile will have access to the new submarine fiber optic cable Mistral, which will stretch to Guatemala and have connection points in Peru and Ecuador later this year.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Florencio Utreras, a researcher at the Mathematical Modeling Center of the University of Chile, explained that a submarine fiber optic cable allows light to be transmitted mainly through laser rays, which are emitted at the ends of communication devices, and which make it possible to transmit encrypted data.

SANTIAGO, June 10 (NNN-TELESUR) — Chile inaugurated Latin America’s first-ever solar thermal energy plant, a vast complex dubbed Cerro Dominador in the Atacama desert that gives a boost to the country’s quest for carbon neutrality by 2050.

In an area exceeding 700 hectares, 10,600 mirrors surround a 250-meter-high tower topped with a receiver onto which the Sun’s rays are reflected. Molten salts in the receiver absorb the heat and are then used to generate electricity – up to 110 megawatts – by means of a steam turbine.

CONSTITUCION, Chile, Jun 6 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – An earthquake, with a magnitude of 5.4, jolted 159 km west-northwest of Constitucion, Chile, at 03:05 GMT yesterday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicentre, with a depth of 9.57 km, was initially determined to be at 34.8649 degrees south latitude, and 74.0704 degrees west longitude.

SANTIAGO, Jun 1 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – Chile’s unemployment rate rose to 10.2 percent over the Feb to Apr three-month period, marking an annual increase of 1.2 percentage points, as a result of pandemic lockdown measures, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) said yesterday.

According to the INE’s latest National Employment Survey, unemployment during the period was due to a 0.2 percent decrease in the workforce.

SANTIAGO, May 17 (Xinhua) -- An updated study showed that the CoronaVac vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac is 65.3 percent efficacious in preventing COVID-19, Chile's Health Ministry said on Monday.

"With at least four months of follow-up, we have super reliable and positive numbers," said Dr. Rafael Araos, an advisor to the Undersecretariat of Public Health, adding that data obtained over the period are "consistent."

Despite the COVID-19 variants in circulation, "the vaccine is performing adequately," he told reporters at a press conference.

SANTIAGO, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Chile on Saturday began historic elections, in which, for the first time, a Constitution Convention comprised of 155 members will be elected to draft the country's new constitution.

The process "is totally unique in Chile," Lucia Dammert, a political scientist and sociologist at the University of Santiago, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"One of the most important decisions in political terms will be made, which is the formation of the constituent convention within the context of the pandemic," she said.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The face of a new Chile begins taking shape this weekend as the South American country elects 155 people to draft a constitution to replace one that has governed it since being imposed during a military dictatorship.

Nearly 80% of voters in a plebiscite last year chose to draft a new charter for the nation following a year of protests, though there is much less consistent agreement over what it should contain.