SANTIAGO – The death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile reached 40,060 on Monday following 73 more deaths in the previous 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.

The ministry said that tests detected 31,063 new infections, bringing the national count to 2,405,672.

The COVID-19 positivity rate stood at a nationwide average of 23.67 percent and 23.33 percent in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, it said.

Read more: Chile registers 22,192 new daily COVID-19 cases

Health Minister Enrique Paris said he saw “a positive sign” because in some regions the number of new COVID-19 cases was declining.

“The figures are encouraging. We are not saying that we have defeated the pandemic, but last Friday’s figure (37,468 daily cases) could be the ‘peak’ of the pandemic,” he said.