Has the Dominican Republic has reached herd immunity regarding Covid-19? That is, sufficient number of people have developed immunity from catching the disease, and sufficient number of people have been fully vaccinated? New cases seem to be mild, with record lows in hospitalizations.
The Ministry of Public Health Coronavirus Bulletin #775 with the deadline of 2 May 2022 reports 52 new lab-reported cases, down from 55 on the previous day. The number of active cases is 323, down from 372, up from 330 on the day before. There were no deaths reported. The death rate is at 0.76%, one of the lowest in the Americas.
For the past 41 days the number of cases has kept at 100 or less cases. The 52 new cases in Bulletin #775 compare to the 7-day nationwide average for confirmed lab-reported cases that is 52, down from the previous 7-day average.
As per Bulletin #775, with the deadline of 2 May 2022, the Ministry of Public Health has registered 579,572 PCR or antigen-confirmed cases since the first case on 1 March 2020.
The authorities continue to closely monitor the Covid-19 situation to promptly react to any surge in cases, now that every day less people are wearing masks indoors and restrictions have almost all been eliminated. In nearby Puerto Rico, there is a spike in cases.
People are now able to purchase a low-cost antigen test for home use. In case the test is positive, people are likely to seek medical treatment but the case will not be entered into the Covid-19 statistics unless the person repeats the test in an authorized lab. It is likely there is an increase in cases, but these have been mild not meriting people requesting lab PCR tests or lab antigen tests. Nevertheless, so far there has not been a spike in cases.
Bulletin #775 indicates 1,796 Covid-19 lab tests were carried out, up from 1,419 on the previous day. Of the 1,796 tests, only 85 were first time PCR tests, down from the previous day. The others were lab first time antigen tests. The 1,796 number of first time tests compares with the 14-day average now at 1,888,up from the previous day.
Physicians explain that so far most of the cases are detected when an asymptomatic person carries out the Covid-19 test as a routine requirement for another medical procedure or for travel. The tests have yet to indicate a significant spike in cases due to the crowds gathering for the recent Easter vacation week or the entry of fast-spreading new variants.
The 24-hour positivity was 2.90% for the 2 May deadline. The national 4-week positivity rate for the 2 May 2022 Epidemiological Bulletin #775 is at 1.03%, down from the day before.
The record vaccinations for one day is 184,208 on 10 June 2021. For the 2 May 2022 dateline, Our World in Data reports 1,662 first and second dose vaccines were applied. The rolling 7-day average as of 2 May 2022 dateline is at 2,039, down from the previous day.
The Vacunate government website reports injecting 7,207,502 first doses of the vaccine and 5,962,137 second doses as of 2 May 2022 in a country with an adult population of 7.8 million. For the same 2 May 2022 bulletin deadline, the Ministry of Public Health is reporting that 2,327,327 people had received the third booster shot. The government has ordered all with the first two shots to get the booster shot. The government began to vaccinate for the Covid-19 virus on 16 February 2021.
By global standards, the Dominican Republic has been relatively successful at treating Covid-19 and keeping the number of deaths low. For the 2 May 2022 deadline, Worldometer lists the 1M deaths per inhabitant rate for the Dominican Republic at 396. According to the same 1M deaths statistics, fewer people have died of Covid-19 in the Dominican Republic than in Brazil at 3,082, the United States at 3,052, Argentina at 2,800, Colombia at 2,695, Italy at 2,718, the United Kingdom at 2,552, Russia at 2,576, Spain at 2,237, France at 2,230, Germany 1,615 and Canada at 1,025, all major markets for Dominican tourism and countries with overall better health systems.
No Covid-related deaths was recorded for the 2 May 2022 deadline. No death was reported having occurred in the previous 24 hours of the deadline. As of the 2 May 2022 deadline, 4,376 persons are reported to have died of the disease in the Dominican Republic, a nation of more than 10.8 million adults since March 2020. The fatality rate is at 0.76%. The fatality rate per 1M inhabitants is 418.82. Dominican physicians’ diverse treatment for the disease has been relatively successful in the region. The Ministry of Public Health reports that the country’s 418.82 fatality rate per 1M compares favorably to the average 1M inhabitants’ fatality rate for the Americas at 2,625.18 as of 2 May 2022.
The Ministry of Public Health report #775 confirms the decline in serious cases. The bulletin indicates only 6 of 2,373 Covid-19 public hospital beds are occupied, same as the previous day. Only 1 of 585 Covid-19 intensive care units is taken, same as the previous day. The hospitalization statistic is for all the country. The recent experience of the hospitals is that most of the patients that have required hospitalization had not been vaccinated for Covid-19.
The past seven days bulletin result highlights are:
Bulletin #775: 579,572 confirmed cases, 52 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, 370 active cases. No death is reported for the deadline, none in the past 24 hours. The fatality rate per 1M is 418.82.
Bulletin #774: 579,520 confirmed cases, 55 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, 323 active cases. No death is reported for the deadline, none in the past 24 hours. The fatality rate per 1M is 418.82.
Bulletin #773: 579,465 confirmed cases, 22 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, 330 active cases. No death is reported for the deadline, none in the past 24 hours. The fatality rate per 1M is 418.82.
Bulletin #772: 579,443 confirmed cases, 64 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, 341 active cases. No death is reported for the deadline, none in the past 24 hours. The fatality rate per 1M is 418.82.
Bulletin #771: 579,379 confirmed cases, 65 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, 320 active cases. No death is reported for the deadline, none in the past 24 hours. The fatality rate per 1M is 418.82.
Bulletin #775: 579,314 confirmed cases, 66 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, 290 active cases. No death is reported for the deadline, none in the past 24 hours. The fatality rate per 1M is 418.82.
Bulletin #769: 579,248 confirmed cases, 44 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, 271 active cases. No death is reported for the deadline, none in the past 24 hours. The fatality rate per 1M is 418.82.
As per the 2 May deadline, there were 35 new cases in the National District, 7 in Santiago, 4 in La Altagracia, 3 in Santo Domingo province, 2 in San Cristobal and 1 in San Pedro de Macoris. There were no cases reported in 26 other provinces.
Greater Santo Domingo leads in the number of reported PCR and antigen confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic. As of 2 May 2022 at 6pm, the deadline for Bulletin #775, the most confirmed cases have been reported in the National District (150,558) and the Santo Domingo province (119,429) that represents Greater Santo Domingo, with the country’s highest urban density. The numbers account for 50% of the 579,572 PCR and lab antigen confirmed cases nationwide.
Other province case totals are: Santiago (62,099), Puerto Plata (19,479), La Vega (18,700), La Altagracia (18,157), La Romana (17,873), Espaillat (17,810), San Cristóbal (16,656), Duarte (13,106), Valverde (11,213), San Pedro de Macoris (9,654), San Juan de la Maguana (9,498), Maria Trinidad Sánchez (7,787), Barahona (6,751), Azua (6,346), Monseñor Nouel (6,341), Hermanas Mirabal (6,017), Sánchez Ramírez (5,700), Peravia (5,305), Dajabón (5,002), Montecristi (4,980), Santiago Rodriguez (4,576), Monte Plata (4,320), Baoruco (3,484), Hato Mayor (3,450), San José de Ocoa (2,615), Independencia (2,522), El Seibo (2,069), Samaná (2,061), Pedernales (1,481) and Elías Piña (1,296) as of the 2 May 2022 deadline.
Haiti is reported having 30,690 confirmed cases and 835 deaths, as per the 2 May 2022 global epidemiological deadline. Haiti has progressed very slowly with its Covid-19 vaccination program. Early on, the Haitian government rejected a first Covax facility donation of AstraZeneca vaccines. A donation of Moderna vaccines was shipped to 26 February 2022, 175,526 Haitians (1.5% of the population) had received at least a first dose of the Spikevax (Moderna) vaccine at the 149 open vaccination centers since the start of vaccination on 16 July 2021. Early on, Haiti rejected a donation of 100,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from the Dominican Republic. 122,181 Haitians are fully vaccinated (2 doses, 0.96% of the population) as of the 24 April 2022 update, of a population of more than 11.4 million people. New cold storage capacity donated by Canada will be posted on the border and could help increase the number of Haitians that are vaccinated. The Haitians rejected the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, but accept Pfizer and Moderna. The Pfizer vaccines that are available here for applying to the Haitians need to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures.
Already, hundreds of thousands of Haitians that live and work in the Dominican Republic have been vaccinated here. Most employers in the Dominican Republic have required their employees be vaccinated.
The Dominican government has authorized the vaccinating of Haitians with IDs and domicile in the Dominican Republic, but there is much resistance even among those living in the DR to get vaccinated.
See the Ministry of Public Health epidemiological
Bulletins
Vacunate
John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
University of Washington Health Data
University of Oxford Covid Tracker
Worldometer
Our World in Data
4 May 2022