Santiago, Dec 25 (IANS): Amid the just-launched vaccination drive against the coronavirus pandemic in Chile, an additional 2,395 people tested positive in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health.

Thursday's figure increased the overall caseload to 594,152, Xinhua news agency reported.

Besides the new cases, 75 fatalities were also reported in the same period, which took the total death toll to 16,303, the Ministry said.

Immunization began earlier in the day, following the arrival of the first 10,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

"This first stage (of vaccination) should not make us forget that the virus will continue to be present for a long time, to maintain physical distance, use a face mask and wash our hands," Health Minister Enrique Paris said in a statement.

"In the first quarter (of 2021) we are just going to have 5 million people vaccinated, and in the first half (of the year) we are going to reach 80 per cent of the population," he said.