The director of Epidemiology at the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Ronald Skewes conditioned returning to a version of in-person learning at schools nationwide to when the Covid-19 positivity rate drops to under 5%. Today the positivity rate hovers around 10%. Dr. Skewes said that for weeks the rate had been gradually descending, but now it has plateaued to around 10-11%. In the Dominican Republic, the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Education authorized only distance learning programs for the 2020-2021 school year.
Dr. Skewes is also against reducing the present Covid-19 preventive measures, including curfew during the Christmas holidays. He warns Dominicans should not let down their guard and continue to wear facial masks, keep physical distancing and wash hands when meeting friends and family.
Educa, the local pro-education society, has been advocating for in-person learning in areas where the incidence of the disease is low. Darwin Caraballo, director of Educa, says that in Latin America, the country can look to Uruguay’s experience for lessons of how to mitigate the epidemic while returning to in person learning.
A new organization, the Pro In-Person Education Parents collective (Ppeprd) argues that it doesn’t make sense that children can go to the supermarket, shopping centers, restaurants… but they can’t go to school.
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El Dia
23 November 2020