Chile's Covid surge shows even a quick vaccine rollout may not avert more lockdowns

The disastrous experience of Chile shows that even a quick vaccine rollout may not be enough to avoid lockdowns, the UK's chief medical officer warned on Monday night.

Chile – which has one of the world's quickest vaccination rates, has had to close its borders and tighten its lockdown again after daily infection rates hit new records.

Medical experts in the country blamed the government for causing cases to surge by reopening the economy too early as the vaccination programme forged ahead.

Prof Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, said what had happened in Chile contrasted with Israel, which also achieved high vaccination levels rapidly, and where cases have plummeted.

He said it was unclear whether the differences between the two countries were due to the timings of the vaccine rollouts, the jabs used or the emergence of coronavirus variants.

The UK has given a first vaccine dose to over 31 million people, and Boris Johnson has faced calls to end lockdown more quickly.

But Prof Whitty urged a steady and cautious approach to easing restrictions, saying: "We don't yet know. We absolutely need to learn from those countries that are far ahead of us or alongside us, in terms of vaccine rollout, and those [Chile and Israel] are two of the key ones.

"This is the reason we want to do things in a steady way because the assumption that just because you vaccinate lots of people then the problem goes away, I think Chile is quite a good corrective to that."

Chile has fully vaccinated 20 per cent of its population of 19 million – well ahead of the UK. Nearly half of Chileans have received at least one vaccine dose, most of them of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.

Despite opposition from medical experts, President Sebastián Piñera began reopening the country at speed.

In January, citizens were allowed to travel domestically and by March, schools had reopened. Chile had also been allowing in holidaymakers from abroad since November, potentially allowing new virus strains to enter the country.

Now the morgue in the city of Valparaiso is full, and bodies are reportedly being left in corridors. Daily cases across the country have reached 8,000, eclipsing the previous peak of 5,000 in June. Deaths have climbed over 100 a day for the first time since June.

In response, Mr Piñera ordered a new lockdown covering 80 per cent of the population and including the capital, Santiago.

The situation in Israel, which has a population of 9.3 million, has been markedly different. So far, 5.27 million Israelis over the age of 16 have received a first dose. Of those, 4.84 million have received a second shot and been fully vaccinated. Israel has primarily used the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The country's health officials expect all those eligible for the vaccine to be inoculated by the end of May. About one third of Israelis are aged under 16 and currently ineligible for the vaccine until it is deemed safe for children.

Israel has reduced new cases to a few hundred a day, and deaths are below 20 per day. As part of its reopening, it introduced a "Green Pass" coronavirus passport allowing fully vaccinated people to use services such as hotels and theatres.

On Monday night, Prof Nachman Ash, the country's coronavirus tsar, said Israelis may be able to stop mask wearing outdoors next week. But he said masks would still be required inside, adding: "We want to see how the first phase goes, and then we'll see what’s next."