Luis Abinader, the presidential candidate for the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), called for all Dominicans to put aside politics and focus on the present health challenges. “Today we have to be just Dominicans,” he said when interviewed for the “Show del Mediodia” noontime TV variety show on Channel 9.
He said the PRM is waiting for the government to approve the protocol for the donation of 40,000 diagnostic test kits the party is importing and that are expected to arrive in groups of 10,000 starting this week. The lack of diagnostic tests has been a major obstacle in the war against the coronavirus. Public Health Minister Rafael Sanchez Cardenas has admitted the Ministry has not secured suppliers to meet the demand for PCR tests in the country.
Abinader says the Medina administration has rejected the proposal for a united front that would include opposition party members. He says the government had not responded to their offers to help fight the disease. “We are going to continue helping as we can,” he said. “It is a problem that we all have to attack and we have not wanted to politicize it as the government has done,” he said.
He said for the PRM the health of the Dominican people is priority No. 1. He says the government needs to spend what is needed in diagnostic tests and equipment. “The more we dig into this, the quicker we will get out of it,” he said. Abinader said he would back more drastic measures, keeping open pharmacies, supermarkets, colmados, and farms to operate to ensure food supply.
“First is health, the rest we can resolve later,” he said. He said it is better to take drastic measures to stop the spread of the virus now.
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2 April 2020