675 thousand Dominicans have received a dose of the vaccine against COVID-19

The Ministry of Public Health reported this Monday that 675 thousand Dominicans have been inoculated to date. Simultaneously, the vaccination day against the coronavirus continues in a more restricted way to guarantee the second dose to everyone who corresponds on March 24.

The Minister of Public Health, Daniel Rivera, said, through an interview on the El Despertador program, that the Dominican Republic is the second-fastest country to vaccinate its population, with around 85 thousand vaccinated per day.

As of Thursday, around 660 thousand people had been inoculated in the country. In other words, in three days, another 15 thousand people were vaccinated. Since then, the COVID-19 vaccine has only been applied to older adults who have made a prior appointment through the VacúnateRD platform and initial and essential teachers through a Ministry of Education list.

“The population is already prepared, and the vaccine reserves we had are to guarantee the application of the second dose to those who have already been vaccinated,” said the minister.

Meanwhile, he clarified that the batch of AstraZeneca vaccine applied in the country is not the same as that used in Europe. This is due to the recent suspensions in applying the biological of this pharmaceutical, in some European countries, for causing alleged side effects.

Regarding the arrival of the first batch of one million vaccines from China, estimated for this Monday, the minister did not offer concrete information and estimated that these doses “would arrive in the next few days.”

However, they express that the wish of President Luis Abinader and Vice President Raquel Peña is that when the lots purchased from AstraZeneca and Pfizer arrive in the country, the vaccination is open as if it were an electoral voting day.

On the other hand, Rivera stressed that the country is the second with the lowest infection rate in Latin America, only after El Salvador.

COVID cases

This March 15, the Ministry of Public Health reported the discovery of 254 new cases in the last 25 hours from 1,839 samples taken for the first time. At the same time, the deaths of four people were reported in the previous 24 hours.

In total, 3,226 have died in the DR from COVID, and 246,299 cases have been registered.

In that sense, the daily positivity is located at 13.81%, while that of the last four weeks is 11.24%.

Meanwhile, the occupancy of beds destined for COVID-19 is around 20%. And the occupancy of beds in intensive care is 31%.