The Presidential Committee for Covid-19 Response reports local public health researchers have stored around 100,000 samples of Covid-19 to determine variations in the genotype of the virus in the Dominican Republic by geographical regions. During a Listin Diario live stream with Dr. Amado Alejandro Baez, the executive director of the Presidential Committee for Covid-19 Response explained that researchers are conducting a big data survey. The genetic typing study of the coronavirus by region is expected to help the public health authorities to carry out more intelligent interventions.
A protocol is being developed to study the behavior of the virus in Dominican territory, which includes seeing the possibility of mutations. The researchers are studying the possibility of variability due to the type of climate prevailing in the region.
The Dominican Republic is one of the best-connected countries in the Americas. The different strains could have entered via Dominican travelers and foreign tourists.
Equally worthy of investigation is Haiti’s low fatality rate, where the first case was diagnosed on 19 March, 18 days after the first case in the Dominican Republic. As of 15 June, in the Dominican Republic there were 23,686 confirmed cases, 415 new confirmed cases from 112,603 PCR diagnostic tests. The number of PCR tests is the lowest in the past six days. The tally of deaths is 615, Haiti reports 4,441 confirmed cases and 76 deaths as of 15 June 2020.
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Ministry of Public Health
Medical News Today
17 June 2020