Close contact with the Chilean Government and the
health, police and immigration authorities have enabled the
Consular team to help British citizens during the
pandemic.
Since the middle of March, when the coronarvius (COVID-19)
pandemic was declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the
British Embassy Santiago has been almost entirely focused on
managing the health crisis.
Our main work at the start of the pandemic was helping British
nationals in Chile, both on cruise ships and on land, who had
emergency needs arising from the crisis. Before international
flights were completely cancelled in mid-April, we worked with
the Chilean authorities to ensure that British nationals could
leave the country without difficulties and to help people in
remote areas to get to Santiago for their flights.
We believe that nearly all of the 3,000 or so British visitors
who were in Chile in mid March are now safely back in the UK.
However, we will continue to work tirelessly to help those who
are still in Chile.
Another part of our work has been to support British nationals
who were visiting Chile and contracted COVID-19. We have had five
cases – four of which were people on cruise ships – including 3
who were hospitalised. Throughout their weeks in Chile we
remained in close contact with them, their respective hospitals,
insurers, and families back in the UK. All have now returned to
the UK.
The UK and Chile working together
In the rush of handling the immediate health crisis, it can be
hard to make time to take a longer term view. However, Chile and
the UK, like all other countries in the world, are going to
suffer serious economic damage as a result of the virus.
Therefore, a powerful and co-ordinated economic response is vital
to reduce the negative economic impact of the pandemic.
Chile is one of the UK’s key trade and investment partners in
Latin America, a country which shares the UK’s belief in the
importance of free trade and a fellow member of the OECD. We will
be working closely together in the coming months over our
responses to the economic consequences of the pandemic.
We will also be seeking not only to restore trade to its
pre-COVID-19 levels, but to increase it. In this way we can help
restore the economies of both the UK and Chile. Also, both
countries are committed to global responses to the current health
crisis, including the scope for collaboration on the area of
vaccines.
The UK’s international response
As in other British embassies overseas, the UK has been combining
our support for British citizens with a three-pronged approach to
respond to COVID-19:
-
firstly, supporting the global health response and in
particular the most vulnerable countries. The UK has pledged
£744 million through aid funding including support for the
WHO (£65 million), Red Cross (£50 million) and UNICEF (£25
million). This includes sending experts and sharing medical
supplies to prevent the spread of the disease and support
hospitals and medical workers stretched to their limit around
the world
-
secondly, the UK is leading on international efforts to find
a vaccine. We have contributed £250 million to the Coalition
for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the largest
national contributor to this global initiative to develop new
vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. The UK will also host
the Global Vaccine Summit in June 2020. In addition to
tackling COVID-19, it remains vital that programmes against
other diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria
continue
-
the final strand is to protect the international economy – as
it would be a high cost to pay if we beat the virus but were
to lose yet more lives to increased poverty and the loss of
global supply chains for essential goods like food and
medicines
