Looser curfew coming (heard a rumor)

[TropicalPaul]

Today I had lunch with someone who runs a big bar and restaurant in Santo Domingo She told me that she is geting ready because the Toque de Queda is going to be relaxed more next week. The new hours will be 9pm in the weekdays with 3 hours free transit, so you have to be home by midnight. And at the weekend 7pm and home by 10pm. She told me who told her and I know that this person has met with Abinader several times recently, so it's reasonably solid. But obviously things can change. The announcement will be made probably on Monday.

Wow, we may all be able to have dinner in a restaurant or go out for a drink in the evening soon. And stay out until midnight. If it happens it will be wonderful.

 

[cavok]

Much more sensible hours.

 

[Kricke87]

Finally! Personally, I think this curfew has been ridiculous. Not because I personally have been out in public so much since March. But rather because it basically doesn't work. Those who care for their health and people around them, will stay home as much as possible and will also social distance themselves, and for those of us doesn't need a curfew. But those who don't care won't adhere to a curfew (and it's been shown for the past year that this is true). Furthermore, just as I've heard so many others commenting, "Covid only spread during Nighttime?". If their real motive would be to stop the spread it would at any point be a 24hr curfew.
I would even go so far as to say that this curfew has probably caused more spread than if it wouldn't have existed. Just because all necessary services, such as banks, supermarkets, pharmacies have also had to adhere to those times and as those are necessary businesses (everyone needs to buy groceries). So instead of being open like 15-18 hours a day 7 days a week, those businesses had to at worst only be open 10 hours during weeks and only 5 or 6 hours during weekends. Which makes for greater crowds both inside and outside of the establishments. This obviously is not good, as if you've been in any of those queues NOBODY social distance.
So I really hope that what you say is true, not because I'm going to go outside more than previously. But it would probably make going to the supermarket a bit less stressful.

 

[TropicalPaul]

I think the main point is that if he doesn't do this, there won't be any bars or restaurants left. With no evening service, restaurants and bars are seriously in financial trouble and many that have closed won't come back. And if tourists are going to have to put up with the hassle of paying for two PCR tests and possibly going into quarantine when they get home, the whole tourist offer has to be better.

 

[MiamiDRGuy]

Know what's funny? Up here in states, bars/restaurant are open and we can even dine in until 130am. Gas stations are open 24/7. Banks open regular hours. Food stores and shops opens their hours. Result: No issues so far.

But in DR, you have curfew? Thats dictator right there. Bottom line: Curfew DOESNT work, period.

Lot of people were arrested and had no money and fining them. Make no sense. That is why it's proven DR is full of corrupted people/politicians that doesn't understand how it impact them and Abinader keeps focusing on Tourism too much but doesn't help and reinvest DR hard enough. That is why he fail DR.

If you want DR to be fully stable and restored, get rid of curfew and let business decide what is the best for them and do social distincing. Then people would had jobs and revenue would be flowing all over and Tourism would be alright.

Lastly, DR is screwed if they keep the curfew for long time and trust me, Tourism wont be back for year or two after this ends. They shot their own foot. Big Time.

If you think I'm crazy, go right ahead but I know what I see and I've been in business for long time and I know how it works.

DR people, you better pray Abinader will show his true colors that you don't see because he is not doing his job hard enough.

Just my 2 cents ...

 

[Carl.L]

Know what's funny? Up here in states, bars/restaurant are open and we can even dine in until 130am. Gas stations are open 24/7. Banks open regular hours. Food stores and shops opens their hours. Result: No issues so far.

But in DR, you have curfew? Thats dictator right there. Bottom line: Curfew DOESNT work, period.

Lot of people were arrested and had no money and fining them. Make no sense. That is why it's proven DR is full of corrupted people/politicians that doesn't understand how it impact them and Abinader keeps focusing on Tourism too much but doesn't help and reinvest DR hard enough. That is why he fail DR.

If you want DR to be fully stable and restored, get rid of curfew and let business decide what is the best for them and do social distincing. Then people would had jobs and revenue would be flowing all over and Tourism would be alright.

Lastly, DR is screwed if they keep the curfew for long time and trust me, Tourism wont be back for year or two after this ends. They shot their own foot. Big Time.

If you think I'm crazy, go right ahead but I know what I see and I've been in business for long time and I know how it works.

DR people, you better pray Abinader will show his true colors that you don't see because he is not doing his job hard enough.

Just my 2 cents ...

No issues? As of yesterday there were almost 500,000 people dead from Covid-19 in the US. And counting at almost 3000 deaths a day. No issues indeed.

The DR is doing well to keep things locked down tight. All of the countries with the lowest deaths and rates of infection have done that and following their lead is smart, cheap and more effective than anything else so far. Masks, social distancing and staying home is all that's holding things together in terms of slowing and maintaining health.

It's a shame that businesses, and more importantly people, are suffering financially but at least most are surviving.

 

[chico bill]

We are approaching herd immunity. The vaccines will add to that.
Of course if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine gets final approval it only needs one jab and can be kept at refrigerator temperatures.
The people who complain about slow roll out of vaccines in other countries should watch the cobwebs grow on any future vaccine plans in DR.
But my take on curfews is why make the weekend different? Make it 9PM across the board. Better yet 10pm.
The whole curfew was done for show and control. Now it will be claimed as a great success. Everyone take a bow.

 

[windeguy]

The DR government is focused on AI tourism and curfews have little effect on that tourism.
Canada's testing requirements and Covid hotels set up by their dictator have far more effect on Canadians visiting the DR than curfews do.

Tourism outside of AI's does not carry a lot of weight with Abinader's government because it has far less impact on revenue that non-AI tourism.
Realizing that makes thing far more clear.

We in the DR are far away from herd immunity. It could be a year before herd immunity is reached here with the very slow rollout of vaccines.
And then, remember this: CV19 is here, there and everywhere to stay in some new and exciting variants. Once the vaccinations are done, even people like Boris Johnson realize we have to "start all over again".

Perhaps the curfew will be looser soon.

 

[TropicalPaul]

The DR government is focused on AI tourism and curfews have little effect on that tourism.
Canada's testing requirements and Covid hotels set up by their dictator have far more effect on Canadians visiting the DR than curfews do.

Tourism outside of AI's does not carry a lot of weight with Abinader's government because it has far less impact on revenue that non-AI tourism.
Realizing that makes thing far more clear.

We in the DR are far away from herd immunity. It could be a year before herd immunity is reached here with the very slow rollout of vaccines.
And then, remember this: CV19 is here, there and everywhere to stay in some new and exciting variants. Once the vaccinations are done, even people like Boris Johnson realize we have to "start all over again".

Perhaps the curfew will be looser soon.

If you look at where Abinader has been and what he has recently been saying, he's making a lot of gestures to support non-AI tourism. He did a big thing in the Colonial Zone this week and has committed funds to spend in Limon near to Las Terrenas and also has been up to Puerto Plata to promote projects there. I haven't heard a lot of him in Punta Cana.

And my thoughts on curfews are that if you look at the death rate charts, it seems to be a straight trade between Freedom and Covid deaths. The UK and US have not had many effective restrictions and high deaths. Cuba and China rule with a rod of iron and have come out well. The Dominican curfews have been a very simple and easy-to-understand control, which in a country with low education is important. And seem to be a factor which has helped the DR to come out of this comparatively well. Along with the weather.

 

[chico bill]

I want to hear from any of the extranjeros who start getting vaccinated.
Tell us where and when and how.
Don't expect it to be free. Expect to get the "gringo price" from the clinic.

I might get vaccinated after another 6 months rolls by and we have a good record of each vaccine's side effects.
But I want a single jab. Pfizer now says one dose of their vaccine is 92.6% effective. That's hard to improve on, why need a 2nd ?

Single dose of Pfizer, Moderna COVID vaccine nearly as effective as two: study

Single doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are more than 92 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 illness after two weeks, Canadian researchers are saying. The FDA’s own data show tha…

nypost.com

But all of those no clamoring for an injections have been on this forum in the past criticizing big pharma - now how ironic.

While I am grateful operation Warp Speed seems to have worked - I am staying in the watch and wait category on new vaccines and leery of what the pharma labs are pushing (for now).

 

[josh2203]

let business decide what is the best for them and do social distincing.

Of course, every single business would just operate as usual, I assume, but the problem here may be that if a business causes a spike in numbers, it won't be that business that takes any responsibility on that, but in the worst case scenario, the health care workers and hospitals fill up...

Other than perhaps losing regular customers if they happen to get sick, I would assume no business has interest as such (other than just thinking of the others and possibly their employees) limiting their services...

Even in my country in Scandinavia and many EU countries, the govt have certainly not just have let businesses decide what's best...

Yes, businesses have suffered and many many people have lost jobs... In other countries, many businesses have also received a great deal of help from the govt...

 

[windeguy]

Criticizing Big Pharma and wanting a CV19 vaccination are not at odds with each other.

Consider Big Pharma's lawsuits on White Market addiction via oxycodone.

 

[Cdn_Gringo]

Herd immunity will be difficult to achieve here if the vaccine is not rolled out to all the people who live in the country on the same schedule and if large segments of the population choose not to be vaccinated. I'm not in favor of forcing anyone to be vaccinated but I am strongly in favor of everyone having the opportunity to do so quickly and easily if they wish. Excluding segments of the population is just poor health policy and cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[slowmo]

Know what's funny? Up here in states, bars/restaurant are open and we can even dine in until 130am. Gas stations are open 24/7. Banks open regular hours. Food stores and shops opens their hours. Result: No issues so far.

But in DR, you have curfew? Thats dictator right there. Bottom line: Curfew DOESNT work, period.

Lot of people were arrested and had no money and fining them. Make no sense. That is why it's proven DR is full of corrupted people/politicians that doesn't understand how it impact them and Abinader keeps focusing on Tourism too much but doesn't help and reinvest DR hard enough. That is why he fail DR.

If you want DR to be fully stable and restored, get rid of curfew and let business decide what is the best for them and do social distincing. Then people would had jobs and revenue would be flowing all over and Tourism would be alright.

Lastly, DR is screwed if they keep the curfew for long time and trust me, Tourism wont be back for year or two after this ends. They shot their own foot. Big Time.

If you think I'm crazy, go right ahead but I know what I see and I've been in business for long time and I know how it works.

DR people, you better pray Abinader will show his true colors that you don't see because he is not doing his job hard enough.

Just my 2 cents ...

You lost me after the "up here in the states" part of your advice. Here in Nova Scotia we are open for business because we test, contact trace, quarantine with constant checks, wear masks and randomly check businesses for compliance. Out of 1 million people, we are averaging about 2 positive cases/day.

 

[windeguy]

Herd immunity will be difficult to achieve here if the vaccine is not rolled out to all the people who live in the country on the same schedule and if large segments of the population choose not to be vaccinated. I'm not in favor of forcing anyone to be vaccinated but I am strongly in favor of everyone having the opportunity to do so quickly and easily if they wish. Excluding segments of the population is just poor health policy and cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Priorities.

Israel will have a two tiered system. One for those vaccinated and one for others.

The DR has the priority to vaccinate citizens against the Chinese virus and perhaps let the chips fall where they may with the WHO filling in the gaps, or not.

 

[Caonabo]

"Heard a rumor"
Says it all right there.

 

[windeguy]

"Heard a rumor"
Says it all right there.

Badda Boom.

Believing is seeing it happen. I don't expect "looser" until some arbitrary number of vaccinations is completed and we are many months away from that likelihood.

 

[Kricke87]

Badda Boom.

Believing is seeing it happen. I don't expect "looser" until some arbitrary number of vaccinations is completed and we are many months away from that likelihood.

Well, it all depends on why they have curfews in the first place. I still firmly stand by my statement that curfews per se doesn't help. As I mentioned in a previous post, it has clearly been shown during this entire pandemic that those who don't care, they disregard the curfew and are still partying, socializing despite it being during the time of curfew. There are whole neighbourhoods that even though they should close their businesses at 7 pm they don't care and close when they feel like it.
For the DR to have a fairly low death count and fairly low infection rate, first of all, we don't know the whole picture. Just because the "official" numbers say something doesn't mean that they are true. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I'm also fully aware that there are a lot of corrupt people in this country that for one or another reason wants to hide the true numbers from the public, I would not be surprised if the actual numbers are much much higher than the "official" ones.
Nevertheless, there are probably a lot of other factors that contribute to DR having a "supposedly" low infection number, such as mask-wearing in public, better climate etc. I'm not a scientist, but I deeply doubt that curfews during nighttime have any effect at all, as those who care about their health and those around them doesn't need someone to tell them to be careful, whilst those who don't care, it doesn't matter, they live their lives as it pleases them anyway.

 

[playacaribe2]

Herd immunity will be difficult to achieve here if the vaccine is not rolled out to all the people who live in the country on the same schedule and if large segments of the population choose not to be vaccinated. I'm not in favor of forcing anyone to be vaccinated but I am strongly in favor of everyone having the opportunity to do so quickly and easily if they wish. Excluding segments of the population is just poor health policy and cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Exactly.

And just a reminder....................the population of the DR has a significant number of younger people (25%)..............i.e. non-adults. Testing, let alone approval, has barely begun on those aged 12-18.............

The reality is, vaccination of the population in any meaningful numbers for the total population............is likely delayed until at least 2022............and perhaps longer.


Respectfully,
Playacaribe2

 

[windeguy]

I agree with 2022 and maybe longer, PC2. Hence no reason to change the status quo.