The Dominican Ministry of Public Health clarifies 36 deaths occurred over a whole month, not 24 hours

The Ministry of Public Health reported yesterday that the 36 deaths from coronavirus reported last Thursday do not correspond to 24 hours, but to deaths that accumulated for a whole month.

The ministry wanted to reassure the population that reacted alarmed when the bulletin number 168 issued last Thursday by the Ministry of Public Health registered the number of deaths from the virus.

Public Health revealed yesterday that from now on the government will apply a new scheme for the reporting of deaths and infections by Covid-19, which will allow segmenting the figures registered in the last 48 hours and those accumulated from previous days.

During a press conference held yesterday at the Ministry of Public Health, Ivelisse Acosta, vice minister of Collective Health, emphasized that the 36 deaths reported last Thursday occurred between July 23 and August 23. Of that total, 32 people died from July 28 to August 10.

Of these 36 deaths, 25 were men and eleven women between the ages of 14 and 92, which shows that the coronavirus is also lethal in the young population.

Acosta said that generally deaths are not reported on the day they occur, due to the verification that is required, and because you also have to wait several days to receive the death certificate to confirm that it was due to Covid-19.

The official said they do not have a system to upload deaths immediately, so there are days that no center has reported deaths from the pandemic.

“The registry of deaths caused by the effects of Covid shows a downward trend during the month of August and are cases that correspond to people admitted in the month of July and the first days of August,” said Acosta, who indicated that the team of Statistics and Epidemiology works on the necessary changes to make the information process easier.