Chile's president opens hospital amid COVID-19 epidemic

 President Sebastian Pinera on Monday inaugurated a hospital in southern Chile to bolster the region's capacity to tackle the COVID-19 epidemic.

"It is important for us to be united and to be working as a team. Here, we all have to be on the same side to contain the coronavirus," Pinera said via a videoconference call.

The hospital in Padre Las Casas, a town in the La Araucania region, one of the most affected by the outbreak, makes 280 beds available for the area's 380,000 residents.

Pinera's government plans to open another five hospitals across the country, with a total of 1,700 beds, to strengthen the national healthcare system as the epidemic puts pressure on the existing infrastructure.

To date, 4,815 Chileans have tested positive for the virus, which has claimed 37 lives.