How Chile became South America’s vaccine success story

Chile had a rocky start to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the central government involved in a number of scandals. The Health Minister Jaime Mañalich resigned after it was revealed his department was counting coronavirus deaths among the country’s “cured” cases, saying that deceased people were no longer contagious. And in December, President Sebastián Pinera received a fine for breaching quarantine rules, when he took a mask-less stroll on the beach and posed for selfies with bystanders.

But one year on from the country’s first case, Chile has some reason to celebrate its response to the health crisis. At the time of publication, Chile has the world’s fifth-highest Covid-19 vaccination rate, having already inoculated over 16 percent of its population.

The rate is much higher than any of Chile’s Latin American neighbors, which have struggled in their respective vaccine rollouts. Having immunized 6.1 million people so far, Brazil surpasses Chile in absolute terms, but this total only represents 3 percent of the Brazilian population.

Over 1.8 million of Chile’s 3.1 million vaccinated citizens are aged over 65, which the Health Ministry highlighted as one of the main goals of the country’s first immunization phase. According to Chile’s official vaccination timetable, education workers and...