Bernardo Vega said during the Channel 9-Noticias SIN coverage of the municipal elections that the country can expect the government to announce additional “unpleasant” measures on Monday as efforts are put in place after the municipal election to halt the spreading of the Covid-19 in the Dominican Republic. The Medina administration has convened cabinet ministers and agency heads to an extraordinary government meeting at the Presidential Palace for 4pm on Monday, 16 March 2020. The government had confirmed 11 cases as of 15 March 2020.
Vega, a former governor of the Central Bank and Dominican ambassador to the US, spoke after the polls closed on 5 pm on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Medina administration announced a ban on flights from Europe. The ban comes after the United States ordered a halt to flights from Europe. Vega said travelers could have averted the US ban by catching a flight from Europe to the DR and then to the United States. “I do not doubt that international organizations advised the government to ban the DR connection to Europe,” he observed.
Vega remarked that it is just a matter of time before the DR bans travel from the United States. He said that Guatemala has already done so. He said that 20% of the Dominican population lives in the United States.
According to Vega, these will be difficult times for the outgoing government and the incoming government. He summed up that the effects of “a country that lives off tourism being sans tourism” will be felt by all.
He said the only good news is the decline in the price of petroleum.
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Noticias SIN
16 March 2020