Public Health Minister Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas said in his press briefing on Friday, 8 May 2020 that no country can forecast an end date to the Covid-19 epidemic. He said the evolution in the Dominican Republic, as in other countries, depends on the social behavior and how each population complies with hygiene and physical distancing measures. He said countries, where there are no social gathering or agglomerations of people, will fare better.
The minister said that the discussion revolves around how to deal with the health issues while resuming economic and social activities. The Dominican Republic has been under curfew and stay-at-home order for two months now. Dr. Sánchez Cárdenas says that while the government is contemplating relaxing restrictions for several productive activities, the curfew will be maintained.
“The return to work and meeting with people for productive activities has to happen within certain protocols to mitigate the impact of the spread of the disease,” he said. He alerted a return to the old normal would result in a catastrophe and collapse of the health system.
He said that people have been expecting a spike in the number of cases and then a drastic decline, “such as if it were Duarte Peak”. He says in the case of the Dominican Republic, we have seen a stable and slow increase in cases.
“Success in the management is in keeping contagion at levels for which the hospital system can provide care. But the economy also needs to be reactivated, people need to return to work, and life needs to recover,” he acknowledged in the press briefing.
He said that keeping the curfew means that dining out at restaurants, gathering at bars will be phased in much later. “We will need to continue avoiding social gatherings,” he stressed. He said the curfew would be kept as part of disease containment measures.
Dr. Sánchez Cárdenas says the government is awaiting the conclusion of the population random testing to determine the real spread in the country. The test is carried out by administering rapid anti-body tests to a representative sample all throughout the country.
Public Health Minister explained during the press briefing that the positive rating in the Dominican Republic has been declining at a time when more testing is carried out. He said the present trend is for the disease to decline. He said many private hospitals have reduced to half the areas they had initially created to receive Covid-19 patients. He mentioned Siglo 21 in San Francisco, Uniión Medica and Homs in Santiago. He reported the mortality rate has declined to 4.05%.
The Dominican population for the most part has respected the stay at home and quarantine, but with two months of containment, the population is restless. There are reports again of traffic jams in Santo Domingo.
He said that discussions will continue as the authorities analyze how to relax the restrictions to activate the economy while continuing efforts to mitigate the pace of the disease.
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Ministry of Public Health press briefing 8 May 2020
DR1 News
8 May 2020