Dr. Marcos Espinal, director for Communicable Diseases at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), says the Dominican Republic is still in a critical phase of the Covid-19. He forecasts this will continue for another three weeks. He urged the authorities not let down their guard and that measures not be relaxed. He made the comment when interviewed on Enfoque Matinal of CDN, Channel 37 via Zoom. He made the observation at a time when the number of daily reported cases seems to have stabilized.
Dr. Espinal said people must be aware that there is an underestimation of cases. He said a decrease in a week could create false security. “The important thing is for the decline to be constant. The peak is about six to eight weeks,” he said.
He said it is likely the disease is here to stay, the way influenza is a seasonal disease.
The PAHO official said the country apparently has already had the first peak of the coronavirus curve, of approximately 300 cases reported in one day. He said other spikes could be seen and alerted against reducing restrictions too soon.
Dr. Espinal acknowledged that, at the beginning of the pandemic, the Dominican Republic was performing about 800 tests per million people, but that today that number has increased to about 2,200, surpassing Guatemala and Honduras, where between 400 and 500 are carried out.
“That’s a good point that the containment measures, with their weaknesses and strengths, have had some effect,” he said.
However, he understands that the country must continue to increase the number of tests and make them available to the population free of charge. He stressed that, although there is progress, the country also has its weaknesses.
Dr. Espinal stressed that one point that has to be considered by the government with respect to the crisis that the country is experiencing is to identify the essential businesses that can be allowed to return to work with their respective measures of social distancing.
The PAHO official said that every disease leaves a lesson and Covid-19’s lesson is that governments must invest more in health to strengthen the basic capacities to meet international health regulations.
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El Caribe