Chile's COVID-19 cases top 295,500, death toll climbs to 6,308

SANTIAGO, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Chile on Sunday reported a total of 295,532 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) since the outbreak began.

The COVID-19 death toll climbed to 6,308 after 116 more patients died of the disease in the previous 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said.

Over the same 24-hour period, tests detected 3,685 new cases of infection, including 2,852 people with symptoms and 438 people who were asymptomatic.

Around the country, 28,194 cases are considered to be active, either being treated in hospital or at more than 150 isolation centers set up by the government, or quarantining at home.

Some 2,078 patients are currently hospitalized, and of those 1,736 are on ventilators, including 385 in critical condition.

Authorities said they have done 18,004 tests in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of tests done since large-scale testing and tracing was launched in March to 1,181,884, with a 25.01 percent rate of testing positive.

Chile declared a state of catastrophe months ago to better enforce lockdown and social distancing measures with the help of the army and police force, including a nighttime curfew.