SANTIAGO, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chilean Health Minister Enrique Paris said Wednesday that the country has seen less than 100 critical cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last 12 days.

Out of the 745 patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU) over that period, only 79 were considered critical, he noted.

According to the Latin American Center for Economic and Social Policies at Chile's Pontifical Catholic University, 13 regions in Chile have less than 80 percent of their ICU beds occupied.

The southern Magallanes region, the country's hardest hit, continues to see a decline in cases per 100,000 inhabitants, but still has Chile's highest infection rates.

Nationwide, in the past 24 hours, tests detected 1,004 new cases of infection and six more patients died of the disease, raising the total caseload to 505,530 and the death toll to 14,032 since the first case was reported March 3.