SANTIAGO (Reuters) – More that 1,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Chile, the health ministry reported on Sunday, with 827 of the deaths occurring in May alone as the pandemic spreads quickly in the South American mining powerhouse.

The country has had 99,688 confirmed cases of the disease so far, 1,054 of them fatal, the ministry said.

“We know we are in the most difficult weeks,” Undersecretary of Health Paula Daza said in a televised address.

“We are making decisions and taking measures every day to contain the spread,” Daza added.

(Reporting by Fabian Cambero, writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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