Chile is locking down as it battles a serious second wave of COVID-19, but thankfully it’s still possible for media professionals already inside the country to move around and shoot with the necessary credentials. Pudu has these in the bag.
From April 5, 2021, Chile is closing its borders to all passengers, including Chilean citizens and foreign residents, until the end of April 2021, when the government will assess the situation provide a further update. Travelers will be forbidden from entering or leaving the country for the entire month.
Despite leading one of the world’s best vaccination programs, the country is currently battling some of the worst figures since the pandemic began, today reporting the highest daily cases record of 7,830 cases. Critical hospital beds are at near capacity and there is a nationwide positivity rate of 11%.
Other measures brought in to combat the rising infections include a new daily curfew from 9pm until 5am, while some further restrictions have been imposed on retail activities. Pudu can also access the necessary permits to move around in the curfew if you require night-shooting, or location changes ahead of the next day.
Even though 85% of the population are under quarantine, we have been able to continue filming, reporting, and doc developments at Pudu Media through March, because we are registered with the government to access essential permits that allow us to continue these activities.
With these permits we can get our crew along with your contributor, talent or any individual involved in the production — on either side of the camera — moving between locations. Obviously, they need to already be inside Chile, given the new border-closure.
Looking to the rest of 2021, it seems like there’s good news ahead. Chile is currently third in the world chart for doses administered per 100 people, and has already administered over 10.5 million doses in total.
Through my background work in journalism for platforms like NBC News, I’ve recently interviewed a number of the country’s top doctors, who feel that we should hopefully start to see the vaccines make a big impact and reduce down the infections by June or July.
There are lots of variables, ever-changing, but let’s hope the predictions are accurate, and we see safety-levels return to normal, and restrictions around travel ease off in the not-too-distant future.
In the meantime, speak to us at Pudu Media about remote-managing your production using live Video Assist Technology such as QTAKE, or even just traditional in-production comms on FaceTime, Whatsapp or good old phone-calls. These options can also reduce your production travel and personnel costs, and help us to protect the environment by reducing international travel.
Regard us as your own crew, already on the ground, in Chile.
