santiago chiles health minister jaime manalich on wednesday announced a general quarantine for greater santiago to force down a sharp resurgence of coronavirus cases in the capitalthe month of may is proving very tough on our country said manalich who reported that 2660 new cases of the virus were recorded in the country overnight up 60 from the previous daythe minister said extraordinary tough new measures which take effect on friday were necessary to bring down the contagion rate he also announced a nationwide quarantine for all people over 75chile now has 34381 total confirmed cases 14865 recovered victims of the virus and 12 fresh deaths in a total 347santiago has a population of approximately 65 million people the total quarantine there and in surrounding satellite towns comes amid a resurgence in cases in the wealthier eastern areas of the city where the virus was first identified among people returning from trips to italy and asiahe called on citizens to pull together and take the measures seriously and report anyone not wearing masks or observing social distancingin reality the battle for santiago is the crucial battle in the war against coronavirus said manalichsome 313750 pcr tests have been carried out on the population of 18 million peopleasked about claims that some public hospitals were close to collapse he insisted that patients and medical resources already have been transferred to avoid overwhelming particular areaswe dont fear a collapse but in the event that these actions were taking work and are respected he said we need the commitment of every citizen to understands what is at play here and respect all the measures so we dont face a collapse in the system because of a vertiginous increase in cases