SANTIAGO -- Chile on Monday said it will lift lockdown restrictions throughout the Santiago Metropolitan Region on Thursday, following the decrease in new cases of COVID-19.

The positivity rate in the past day dropped to 3.7 percent in the capital, and active cases have also declined, Health Minister Enrique Paris said at a press conference.

"We are seeing a decrease in the attack of the virus, but that does not calm us and we have to keep working," he said.

Starting July 8, 26 towns across the country will emerge from lockdown to advance to phase 2, which calls for social distancing restrictions on weekends only. The towns include three in the Metropolitan region that were among the last to see cases recede.

Chile's Ministry of Health reported 2,852 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total caseload to 1,572,608, and 146 more deaths from the disease, raising the pandemic death toll to 33,249.