After Christmas and the New Year, infections and deaths from coronavirus have skyrocketed in the Dominican Republic and the first vaccine has not yet been given.
Santo Domingo, DR
In the first two days of February, the country reported 31 deaths due to Covid-19, of which 15 were reported yesterday, surpassing the 300 deaths recorded by the surveillance system so far this year.
According to a study carried out in the National District and Santo Domingo by the health authorities, whose advance was given yesterday by Dr. Eddy Perez Then, Covid’s advisor on Covid matters, the highest number of deaths was recorded among those over 65 years of age, male and with morbidities, among them obesity and overweight.
The report on virus number 321, released yesterday, also includes the report of 1,357 new positive cases in addition to the 834 reported the day before, for a total of 2,191 new cases in the first two days of February.
The country has registered a total of 2,719 deaths due to Covid and maintains a lethality rate of 1.25% and a mortality rate of 260.23 per million inhabitants.
Although the daily positivity percentage of the samples processed has been fluctuating, the last four weeks’ positivity shows a slight and systematic reduction, reaching 19.30% yesterday. The daily positivity rate was 22.30%.
The country has a cumulative total of 217,277 cases confirmed positive for the virus by PCR tests, of which yesterday 54,194 had the active virus.
To date, 1,068,693 laboratory samples have been processed.
ICU and ventilation
Yesterday, the country had 294 patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), occupying 54% of the bed availability for this specialized care, while 165 patients were using assisted ventilation for an occupancy of 41% of the existing ventilators.
In regular Covid beds, there were 933 patients admitted for an occupancy of 34% of the beds. This indicator has registered a reduction compared to previous days.
Origin and expansion
Pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic broke out in November 2019 in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China. It then spread to the rest of Asia and Europe, leaving a trail of deaths and infections already numbering in the millions.
The Dominican Republic.
The first case registered by the Dominican health system was an Italian tourist at a resort in La Romana on March 1, 2020, and then a Creole immigrant from Italy.