Listin Diario’s Marta Quéliz reached out to interview today 64-year old Claudio Pasqualini, the Italian tourists who on 1 March 2020 became the first official case of Covid-19 in the Dominican Republic. Pasqualini told the Listin Diario reporter that he has not had another bout with the disease, and that his wife and 29-year old son have remained disease free.
Pasqualini had come for a vacation in a Bayahibe-Dominicus area hotel on 22 February 2020. At the time, Covid-19 was an unknown disease, and the local physicians were ignorant of how to treat it. He told the reporter he has not taken another Caribbean visit. He does not discard returning to vacation in the Dominican Republic.
He told Listin Diario: “I have no sequels of Covid, I have completely healed, in spite of being positive to the virus for such a long time”.
He was just known in the Dominican Republic for weeks as “the Italian.” Once he tested positive, he was interned at the Ramon de Lara Air Force Base hospital where he remained for weeks. It was not pleasant to become the center of attention in this way, he told the reporter. Although he had faith he would survive, he admits that fear gripped him when he continued to test positive. He spent 54 days in the hospital. He appreciates the good treatment he received from the health care workers.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
22 February 2022