Schools in the Dominican Republic are scheduled to reopen on 11 January 2022 after the Christmas, New Year and Three King holidays. But, the country is smack in the middle of the fifth wave of Covid-19 virus. The Omicron variant is the fastest spreading of all that have circulated.
The Health Cabinet and the Ministry of Education have yet to announce if the government will institute new control measures. The government so far has said it does not contemplate imposing new restrictions. Worldwide research has proven that schools are one of the safest places for students. Ines Aizpun, executive editor of Diario Libre makes the point that children were allowed to go to the movies, to stores, to the beach, to visit friends and relatives, but not to schools when remote learning was enforced for most of 2020 and 2021.
Eduardo Hidalgo, president of the Public School Teachers Association (ADP) is against resuming in-person learning at a time when around half of those testing for Covid-19 are positive.
Media reports are that teleworking is back as thousands of employees are affected by the common cold, the flu or Covid-19.
The president of the Dominican Society of Infectology, Dr. Clevy Perez, says that hospital staff is reduced because many healthcare workers are infected.
Long queues of people have formed at government free PCR and antigen testing stations for people wanting to know if they are infected and by those who need to present a negative test to return to the workplace.
The government continues to announce new stations for the free PCR tests. The list of places is published on the Ministry of Public Health Facebook page.
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5 January 2022