Chile Counts Those Who Died of Coronavirus as Recovered Because They're 'No Longer Contagious,' Health Minister Says

Cases of the novel coronavirus in Chile have climbed past 7,500, including 82 deaths, while over 2,300 have recovered from infection as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

But coronavirus patients in Chile who have died are being counted among the country's recovered population because they are "no longer contagious," Chile's Health Minister Jaime Mañalich said this week.

"We have 898 patients who are no longer contagious, who are not a source of contagion for others and we include them as recovered. These are the people who have completed 14 days of diagnosis or who unfortunately have passed away," Mañalich announced at a press conference.

It is unknown when Chile began including the dead among the number of people who have recovered. But the calculation has reportedly been adopted following validation by international health experts, the government claims.

Newsweek has contacted the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for further comment on the inclusion of deaths in Chile's tally of total recoveries.

Chile's first case was confirmed on March 3, a 33-year-old male doctor who had traveled to Asia. The first death was on March 21, which was that of an 83-year-old woman, the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA) reported.

Last month, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera declared a 90-day state of catastrophe, as the number of new cases began to rise in the country.

"This state [of catastrophe] is aimed at...preparing ourselves to confront what lies ahead," Piñera said in a speech at the time.

The country closed its borders in March and large parts of the Chilean capital, Santiago, home to around six million, were placed under lockdown. Schools and various public venues, including malls and movie theaters, and most non-essential services have been closed, Reuters reports.

On Monday, Mañalich warned that "prudence and wisdom" was needed when enforcing quarantines.

"Quarantining a place where various people live in a few square meters is not only a sacrifice that generates enormous trauma and health risks, especially for mental health and intra-family violence," he said. "It is a tool that produces a shift of such magnitude in people's freedom of movement that it has to be used with great care, prudence and wisdom."

Last week, the health ministry announced that those who have recovered from the virus will be given a "discharge certificate" and be exempt from adhering to quarantines or other restrictions.

"Those given a medical discharge certificate will be freed from all types of quarantine or restriction, specifically because they can help their communities enormously since they pose no risk," Mañalich said at a press briefing last Thursday.

The COVID-19 virus, which was first detected in Wuhan, China, has spread to more than 1.9 million people across at least 185 countries and regions.

Large parts of South America have yet to report any confirmed cases. But Brazil has seen the largest portion of cases so far, with over 23,700 to date, while Peru has reported over 9,700 cases. Most of the rest of the continent has reported less than 2,000 confirmed infections, as of Tuesday.

The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates the spread of COVID-19 across the globe.

Data on COVID-19 cases is from Johns Hopkins University unless otherwise stated.