Santiago, Jun 4 (IANS): Chile will extend lockdown measures in 16 cities, including the capital Santiago, due to the increase in Covid-19 infections, which have exceeded 1.4 million cases, Deputy Health Minister Paula Daza has said.

Of the total number of cities that will enter into lockdown starting Saturday, five are in the country's Metropolitan region, including Santiago, Daza said at a press conference on Thursday, Xinhua reported.

The deputy minister of assistance networks, Alberto Dougnac, said 8,150 new cases of Covid-19 were detected in the last 24 hours, meaning a total of 1,403,101 people had tested positive for the virus since March 2020.

Of the new daily cases of infection, 77 per cent had not started or completed their vaccination process, said Dougnac.

In the same 24-hour period, 213 more people died of COVID-19, raising the pandemic death toll to 29,598.

According to Health Minister Enrique Paris, Thursday marked four months since the country's mass vaccination campaign began, and a decline in deaths has been "clearly" seen compared to when "we had no vaccinated people in Chile."

To date, Chile has vaccinated 10,928,685 people against COVID-19, with 8,180,288 having completed both doses.