Dominican authorities promise to enforce restrictions to prevent Covid-19

The authorities will act “drastically and millimetrically with that.” For this, they will “take measures in the coming days on the disorder with which they are operating that department,” said the Minister of the Interior and Police.

Santo Domingo (EFE) .- The Ministry of the Interior and Police will be drastic with establishments that sell alcohol that fails to comply with the provisions established to stop the spread of the coronavirus, without exceptions, said the head of this portfolio, Jesús Antonio Vásquez.

The authorities will act “drastically and millimetrically with this,” and they will “take measures in the coming days on the disorder with which that department is operating,” the official said in statements to the press.

In this sense, he announced that he would increase the number of police patrols in the streets to guarantee that the curfew is heeded, without giving favor to anyone.

“The authorities of the Ministry of the Interior and Police are going to comply with what the mandate established by law says, and that is that there will be no privileged hours or privileges for anyone or any commercial establishment,” he said.

He also called on the population to respect the protocols announced by the Health authorities today to deal with COVID-19, “we have to continue to insist on being a better citizen,” he said.

The vice president of the country, Raquel Peña, detailed this morning the measures included in a plan created by the new Government to strengthen measures against the disease.

According to the initiative, to the health budget this year, which amounts to 51,000 million pesos, 15,000 million pesos will be added until December to face the pandemic.

PCR diagnostic tests, of which an average of 3,000 a day, will be increased to 7,000, said Peña, who specified that work is being done on the qualification of ten public laboratories. At the same time, another seven from the private sector are ready to do this—type of analysis.

Concerning the curfew that has been in force since July 21 and whose schedule varies depending on the days of the week and the boundaries, he noted that “it remains in effect under the same conditions, reinforcing military and police surveillance for the compliance with it.“

The Dominican Republic added 12 new deaths and 1,004 more infections of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Public Health reported this Wednesday.

The Dominican Republic registers 1,501 deaths and 88,127 coronavirus infections, the first case of which in the country was reported on March 1.