Around the world countries are battling against COVID. Some countries are leading the world in the percentage of their population that is vaccinated, and an unlikely country has appeared on the list. 

Ever since the start of COVID, Chile has been at the receiving end of criticism for  how they were handling the virus. A year later they are within the top 10 countries of the percentage of its population vaccinated and the first South American country to vaccinate a good portion of the population. 

According to the Reuters Covid-19 tracker, which tracks the virus infection rates and vaccinations worldwide, infection rates in Chile have been going up despite the rate of vaccinations for the first dosage, but the good news is that the death rate has gone down a significant amount.  

According to Rafael Romo, a CNN reporter, “Chilean authorities have been busy, turning any public space they can into a vaccination center.”

The purchasing of vaccinations for any country is nothing less of a requirement to combat this virus and Romo also stated, “The Chilean government has arranged for the purchase of  35.7 million doses so far, which means that it will have the ability to vaccinate more than 90 percent of its population.” 

It is quite impressive to see the rate at which Chile is vaccinating. They  have a major influence in South America which can hopefully inspire other governments to follow in their footsteps and help their respective countries for the better.

Of course nothing is free in this world and there has to always be a plan in order to execute something of this stature. A reporter of The Guardian, John Bartlett stated,“A state budget of $200m was set aside for the vaccination programme, although the overall cost could rise to nearer $300m, according to Yáñez.” Rodrigo Yáñez is the undersecretary trade minister of Chile, advocating for the distribution of the vaccines all throughout the country.

To bring the perspective of how the Chileans are living through this time, I asked my cousin Bastian Munita, who lives in Santiago, the capital of Chile, about how he felt about his country being one of the leading countries in distribution of the COVID vaccine.  He responded, “ Well I didn’t actually know that Chile could be so high up in vaccinations. It honestly feels great knowing my country is doing so well.” 

While saying that, he sounded very proud of what Chile has been doing. The common question for people is if they themselves are going to get the vaccine and Bastian said, “Right now, I just need to see how the vaccines respond to others to make my final decision,” illustrating that regardless of how well countries do in vaccinating, there are still many people who are skeptical or waiting for more data to come out before getting the vaccine.