The Public Health Minister is optimistic the country will be able to advance to phase 2 of the economic recovery plan. The new phase allows for sports betting bars to open, more businesses in shopping malls, and private collective transport as of Wednesday, 3 June. The same health protocols (face masks, physical distancing, hygiene practices) will remain in place.
Speaking during the Monday, 25 May press briefing, Dr. Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas said to combat the disease, the government is now micromanaging the country, especially Greater Santo Domingo. He said there is mostly spread of the disease in Santo Domingo North, Santo Domingo East and Santo Domingo North. He mentioned the city’s large townships of Los Minas, Los Alcarrizos and Boca Chica. Greater Santo Domingo continues to report the largest increases in the disease.
He said that the positive rate has been sliding in the past four weeks, that is, the relationship of confirmed PCR tests to the number of tests carried out. The Public Health Minister appealed to population to not act as if the threat of Covid-19 is behind us.
“We have controlled the aggressive start of the disease, and we now have a balance between hospital capacity and the cases,” he said. Efforts are on mitigating the disease while kickstarting the process of economic recovery. He stressed this will depend on citizen participation, hygiene, social distancing, use of masks and following the health guidelines.
The number of cases has been slowly declining. Dr. Sánchez Cárdenas said everyone needs to cooperate so people can return to return activities and there be the lowest number of deaths possible. In the Dominican Republic, the Covid-19 response leadership has traded executive orders for appeals to individual responsibility and judgment.
The Public Health Minister urged Dominicans that are back at work to be very careful and continue to implement the health measures so as to not infect vulnerable people that are still sheltering at home, such as elderly people.
He said he cannot tell what will happen. “It is too early. We need to wait 14 days to have an idea of the curve of the spread during the first phase of the opening,” he said. Nevertheless, he is optimistic things are going well. He said the positive rating is now at 18.96. He highlighted the dropping number of deaths. In the past week, the deaths can be counted with one hand. In the Dominican Republic, the National State of Emergency expires on 1 June 2020.
Press briefing Ministry of Public Health
26 May 2020