Chile will face another peak of COVID-19 infections in the next two weeks, a local epidemics monitoring group predicted on Tuesday.

Chile has been experiencing a fifth wave of COVID-19 cases for several weeks and “we could be approaching the peak in two or three weeks,” Felipe Elorrieta, head of the Mathematical Epidemiological Group for the Surveillance of Epidemics and Pandemics at the University of Santiago, Chile, said in a press release.

The team of specialists analyzed data from the Chilean Ministry of Health, which indicated a 58-percent increase in COVID-19 cases in the last 14 days.

“Last week there were 8,500 (daily) cases. This week we should be above 9,000, but below 10,000,” Elorrieta said.

Elorrieta explained that the maximum number of daily infections in this wave should be about 10,000, with a lower speed of transmission compared with previous periods.

In addition, the group warned that Chile has experienced a sustained increase in hospitalizations since last week.

As of Tuesday, the South American country had accumulated a total of 3.7 million COVID-19 cases and 57,997 deaths. (ANI/Xinhua)