Santiago, Mar 23 (IANS): The Chilean government has announced that more than 13 million people will go into quarantine starting from Thursday due to a surge in the number of new Covid-19 cases nationwide.

"We are beginning a very complex week from a health point of view, which requires that we continue to maintain health measures to prevent the spread of the virus," Xinhua news agency quoted Health Minister Enrique Paris as saying at a press conference on Monday.

"During family gatherings, I want to emphasise that it is necessary to maintain physical distance, wash your hands, not share glasses or utensils, and wear a face mask, the most effective way to avoid the spread," he said.

According to the Minister, 21 towns in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, including Maipu and Puente Alto, the most populated in the country, will be put in quarantine, in addition to another 21 localities in the regions of Coquimbo, Valparaiso and O'Higgins, and Maule, Nuble, Biobio and Los Lagos.

Authorities announced the measure after reporting a 17 per cent increase in fresh cases across the country over the last week, while the figure was 36 per cent in the past 14 days.

On Monday, the Ministry registered 6,155 new cases and 80 deaths from the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the national counts to 938,094 and 22,359, respectively.