The High Commission for Coronavirus Prevention is recommending against the country easing further restrictions this week. Dr. Jorge Marte Báez, who is also the medical advisor to the Executive Branch, said the Commission met on Sunday with President Danilo Medina to deliver the recommendation. He said the main reason they are recommending the slowdown of the opening is to ensure that the presidential and congressional election can take place on 5 July 2020 as scheduled “in the most normal way possible.” Dr. Marte Báez said the country is seeing an increase in cases, and more of them require hospitalization in intensive care units.
“Our recommendation is to continue the position of the previous week and not move to phase 3 of opening,” said Dr. Marte Baez. He urged citizens to continue to exercise physical distancing, mask-wearing and hand hygiene.
Dr. Marte Báez says they are recommending increased operations of mixed brigades of Public Health, Armed Forces and the National Police in Greater Santo Domingo, where the most local transmission has been detected. Around 55% of cases have been recorded in the capital city and environs. Tests are limited in the Dominican Republic and most have been available for patients in Greater Santo Domingo.
On the day of the statement by Dr. Marte, the Ministry of Public Health Coronavirus Epidemiological Bulletin #94 showed 899 new cases. Nevertheless, this was the result of a record 3,222 PCR tests carried out. The average by the government over the previous two weeks has been around 2,000 per day. Opposition politicians say the government is manipulating the statistics to politicize the epidemic.
A comparison of stats over the past month (from 21 May to 19 June 2020) show that when opening of phase 1 began on 21 May 2020, Covid-19 recovered patients were 54.1%, they are 58%; hospitalizations were 33% and now are 25%; ICU patients were 2% and they continue at 2%, the fatality rate was 3.26% and now is 2.54% (further sliding to 2.48%), and the positivity rate was 22.02% and now is 19.05%.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Hoy
N Digital
Listin Diario
El Caribe
22 June 2020