Santiago, Apr 2 (IANS): Chilean Health Minister Enrique Paris announced that current health restrictions will be tightened, after the country registered a new peak of Covid-19 infections which increased the overall tally to over a million.

In the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry reported 7,830 new Covid-19 cases, which surpassed the previous record of 7,626 cases registered on March 26, bringing the accumulated total to 1,003,406, Xinhua news agency reported.

The death toll rose to 23,328 after 193 more Covid patients died.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Paris said that starting from April 5, non-resident foreigners will be prohibited from entering for 30 days, with the exception of those authorised by the Chilean consulate in the country of origin based on health criteria issued by the ministry.

Travelling abroad will also be restricted for 30 days for both Chilean citizens and resident foreigners, except for urgent and humanitarian reasons, health treatment or the proper functioning of the country.

Meanwhile, the curfew in place will be brought forward by an hour, to 9 p.m., while individual travel permits will be limited to two per week for quarantined towns.

In addition, starting Saturday, 19 more towns will enter quarantine, joining the more than 16 million residents already in confinement.