Chile has fully vaccinated 73.65 per cent of its target population, or over 11 million people, against COVID-19, the Ministry of Health reported. In a statement on Friday, the Ministry said that more than 23.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered till date, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Of these, 471,156 correspond to people who have taken a single dose (vaccine), 12,361,316 are people who have had their first dose and 11,195,816 have been fully vaccinated," said the Ministry. Of the total number of people inoculated since the start of the vaccination process at the beginning of the year, 52.3 pe rcent are women and 47.6 per cent are men.

Chile has set a target of vaccinating 80 per cent of the country's total population, or just over 15 million people, as part of its strategy to achieve herd immunity. In addition, scientists are studying the benefits of applying a third vaccine dose to reinforce the population's protection.

The South American country on Friday reported 2,906 new COVID infections and 122 more fatalities, increasing the overall infection tally to 1,582,391 and death toll to 33,636.