Minister of Public Health Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas announced the government has decided to extend to La Romana the Thursday, Friday and Saturday (14-16 May 2020) intervention. The Ministry of Public Health has explained that crews of health and social workers, accompanied by the military, will be visiting areas where reports are there may be people with the disease that have not yet tested positive. People will be tested, and if necessary, these will be relocated to isolation centers.
The Ministry of Public Health had already announced the focus would be on areas in Greater Santo Domingo (National District and Province of Santo Domingo) and its neighboring provinces, Monte Plata and San Cristobal. These provinces and the National District account for 50% of all the cases in the Dominican Republic as of 11 May 2020, or around 5,000 cases.
In the Ministry of Public Health press conference, Dr. Sánchez Cárdenas said that the health authorities are working on better coordination. He acknowledged there have been communication glitches with his colleagues at the National Health Service (SNS) and Ministry of Defense. He said he has a meeting pending with Chanel Rosa of the SNS and Major General Paulino Sem of the Ministry of Defense. These organizations have been carrying out Covid-19 diagnostic testing of which the minister said he was not aware. These organizations had carried out testing in Villa Juana and Villas Agrícolas low-income areas in the National District with more than a third testing positive.
In an announcement to the nation on Tuesday evening, Public Health Minister Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas clarified that the province’s interventions did not mean there would be total lockdowns. He specified it was more about a cordon sanitaire, or high-quality epidemiological surveillance and targeted intervention of areas of high risk.
In the statement from the Presidential Palace, the Health Minister said that the operation will be a public sanitation effort. He said homes where people with people that have tested positive or are suspected Covid-19 patients will be fumigated with sodium hypochlorite. He said the effort seeks to identify, control and monitor Covid-19 cases to keep the epidemic under control. He said entry controls, as were imposed temporarily in
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Ministry of Public Health press briefing
Listin Diario
Ministry of Public Health
El Dia
13 May 2020