Alma Morales, the representative in the country of the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization (WHO/PAHO), recommended Dominican authorities to close off the province of Santo Domingo, the National District and Santiago, in order to stop the expansion of the coronavirus.
Morales said that due to the increase in confirmed cases of Covid-19 it is necessary to restrict the mobility of people in these areas, where the highest number of infected people are registered. She added that 55.7% of the infections are concentrated in these three communities, with a major strain on Covid-19 installed capacity at hospitals. “The overflow of those infected who are in intensive care threatens to collapse the country’s health system,” she added.
She suggested restricting mobility or imposing quarantine again as a containment measure to stop the virus. “The only way to stop the spread of the virus is to adopt these kinds of restrictive measures,” she said.
Morales said that there has been a 140% increase in cases from 2 June to 11 July, which should call the attention of pPublic hHealth authorities.
“We never managed to maintain the same number of infections for a period of time, but the Dominican Republic has successfully reduced the lethality,” she said.
She lamented that bed occupancy in intensive care units (ICU) in Santo Domingo is at 91%, in the National District 83% and in Santiago 85%. “These indicators tell us that demand has increased dramatically, which threatens the health system,” she said.
“We believe that measures must be taken now, we must take immediate action because if these measures are not taken the spread of the virus will continue in the country,” she insisted. “We cannot wait until the health system collapses to take the appropriate measures to stop the disease,” she added.
“If we look at the general data from public and private hospitals, the country had 47.44% occupancy in hospital beds, ICU beds 69.63%, the use of ventilators is approximately 55% so it is time to act and not wait for the health system to collapse,” she recommended.
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El Nacional
15 July 2020