Santiago, Nov 3 (IANS): Chilean Health Minister Enrique Paris has urged the public to practice social distancing and other safety measures to prevent a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, as the number of confirmed cases has topped the over half a million mark.

"Compatriots, our country may also suffer a second wave of coronavirus, a significant setback, and revert towards greater restrictions and have more infected patients," Xinhua news agency quoted the Minister as saying at a press conference on Monday, referring to the re-emergence of the virus in Europe.

"We do not want to have a second wave as large as the one that Europe is having, and we will make every possible effort to avoid an increase in infections and more patients dying," he added.

The Ministry of Health said it registered a total of 513,188 confirmed cases of Covid-19 cases since the start of the outbreak here, including 1,314 infections in the last 24 hours.

Another 55 patients died of the disease in the same period, raising the death toll to 14,302.