President of the Infectious Diseases Society: “Covid is not over, we have an ongoing pandemic”.

The president of the Dominican Society of Infectious Diseases, Clevy Pérez Sánchez, warned this Monday morning about the repercussions of circulating the new variants of Covid-19 in the country.

“We have variants of Covid that are prevailing over others (…) We can see that in the fact that in the last three weeks, the cases have increased by 30%, not only in the country but worldwide,” explained the doctor.

Referring specifically to the BA.5 variant, the last to enter the Dominican Republic, the infectologist said that, although it does not represent a fatal risk for those who contract it, it leads to other complications that increase the chances of requiring hospitalization.

“We have also seen how in the countries where the BA.5 variant has been introduced, although not necessarily in intensive care, with ventilators or mortality, but hospitalizations have risen,” said Pérez Sánchez.

According to the specialist, the circulation of the BA.5 variant generates greater danger because it can escape the immune response.

“Much of what has helped immunization is vaccination or immunity generated by previous variants, but we must be vigilant because this new variant does not discriminate against people who have already suffered from Covid on other occasions,” she said.

These statements were offered by the representative of the Society of Infectious Diseases when being interviewed in the Matinal program, conducted by the panelist journalists Persio Maldonado, Laura Castellanos, and Alberto Caminero.

In this television space, Pérez Sánchez assured that “Covid is not over; we have a pandemic that is ongoing.”

At the same time, she stressed that the prevailing thing in these moments of rising infections is to complete his vaccination schedule.

“We already know that immunity is declining, so the prudent thing is to place your booster doses,” she pointed out.