The Chilean government has called a public health emergency after an almost two-week-long public sector workers strike left rubbish piling up in the streets of Santiago in temperatures of more than 30 degrees.
Chilean Health Minister Carmen Castillo said there was a risk of an outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
Large containers were to be distributed to hold the waste, the online news website Emol reported. Local authorities were also granted permission to hire private cleaning companies directly, without the usually mandatory requests for bids.
Hospitals across Chile were only treating emergencies, while passengers endured long delays in airports.
Hundreds of trucks were waiting on the South American country's borders with export and import goods that customs officers were not processing. The strike was believed to have cost the trade sector approximately 300 million dollars.
The public sector workers' trade union was demanding a seven-per-cent raise, among other benefits. The government offered to increase wages by only 3.2 per cent and stressed that the country cannot afford more than that.
The strike began 13 days earlier and was scheduled to end Friday, although trade union officials were considering an extension.
Since the beginning of the protest, about 5,000 pre-planned surgical operations had been suspended, along with around 16,000 doctors' appointments because the relevant staff are on strike, Castillo said.
"We are concerned to see that this is affecting the people who most need our public healthcare system, and that is a problem," she said.
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