Santo Domingo, DR

The Minister of Public Health, Daniel Rivera, expressed yesterday that as of December 1, citizens will be required to have the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine applied.

He said that this requirement would be part of the new restrictive measures announced and implemented in the coming months’ Christmas festivities.

“Starting December 1, our inspectors will be directly in all areas demanding the second dose of the vaccine,” said Rivera during the meeting he held with the pediatrics society where he decided to vaccinate children from five to 11 years of age against the disease.

He detailed that some 700,000 people have yet to receive the second dose to complete the 70 percent of the Dominican population immunized with two doses of covid. These include citizens between 20 and 40 years of age.

He urged to maintain the use of masks and social distancing as a preventive measure and the application of the third dose of the vaccine to complete the immunization scheme.

He emphasized that so far, “there is no record of deaths with the application of a third dose.”

Serious patients

He also pointed out that as of yesterday, among the patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit, there are two young people, 22 and 28 years old, intubated and unvaccinated and with a record of smoke inhalation due to Hooka, which had aggravated their clinical condition when they contracted covid.

Influenza

He pointed out that the public sector has 450,000 vaccines against influenza for the population that requires to be inoculated and to counteract some outbreaks registered in the country.