By DOLORES VICIOSO, DR1 Editor
People are counting the days. This coming Sunday, 16 August 2020, after five terms in office, the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) will no longer be the ruling party. Enter the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) that in 2020 swept the municipal election (15 March) and the presidential and congressional election (5 July).
Expectations are high. This time around Luis Abinader ran for President promising an independent Attorney General as a first step to end corruption and impunity. With just days to go for the end of the Medina administration, the media has been focusing on irregularities in past actions in government of the President’s close family members and relatives. Will they be prosecuted? Former President Hipólito Mejía, a high-ranking member in the PRM and contender to Abinader for the presidential nomination, said: “Presidents cannot be touched.”
Meanwhile, Abinader has been naming his government officers. Many are new to government and politics, starting with Vice President-elect Raquel Peña. This is good. The ties and commitments are less.
Abinader is taking office at a time when Covid-19 is spreading to all the Dominican Republic. Experts say that the time to tackle the disease using contact tracing and tests is behind us. Physicians are recommending to treat every patient with symptoms as infected and not wait for test results. People are fatigued with the curfew and anxious to get back to making a living and enjoying life.
For sure, the press and everyone else will be relieved Public Health Minister Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas is sent to “stay at home”. His statements in the daily coronavirus briefings were many times far removed from reality. In one of his latest briefings, he blatantly said the virus had “plateaued.”
The new health authorities’ plan is unknown. The named Public Health minister, Dr. Plutarco Arias, has said more restrictions will be forthcoming. The new PRM city government in Nagua in María Trinidad Sánchez province has already ordered more restrictive measures. The appointed Minister of Interior & Police is a former María Trinidad Sánchez governor and senator. The nation will not know until next week.
The health crisis is priority No. 1. The economy will not be restored until the virus is under control. Public health is the means to economic recovery. The Medina government did not invest in purchasing tests when it should have. This means there are fewer “confirmed cases.” Confirmed cases do not equal the numbers of people who have or have had the disease in the DR and are not accounted for in the government statistics.
Expect the number of cases first to surge even more when the new authorities tackle the virus. The challenge will be to gradually control the spread so that the positivity rate begins to drop. Since the opening of the economy on 1 July, the number of positive cases to PCR tests has continued to increase. If the government goes the clinical route for diagnosing cases, the number of cases will be even more. But then the situation may be tackled, the same way as happened in New York City. Today the positivity in NYC is under 1%. There is hope we can do a number like that here in the DR.
Next, will the changes and innovations announced by the new government win the trust of the people? Will the new generation politicians in the PRM be able to restrain the old-timers and the traditional politicians within the party who want their perks in government?
Are Dominicans expecting too much?
10 August 2020