Plutarco Arias warns there will be more restrictive measures in Christmas and New Year before the advance of COVID-19

The Dominican population and foreigners in the Dominican Republic could spend Christmas and New Year locked up at home because mobility restrictions could be tightened due to the increase in coronavirus cases.

Health Minister Plutarco Arias said that as the population continues to violate all policies of distancing and use of masks established by the authorities, to the same extent, more restrictions will be placed.

“People are in the streets not complying, and as they continue not complying with the measures, the restrictive measures are going to be much tougher,” said the minister, pleading with the population to please take sheltering a little more seriously.

After noting that the decision to make the measures more flexible or not will depend on what the President of the Republic and the Health Cabinet decide, Arias, emphasized: “If people do not behave well, we will have to take more rigid, more restrictive measures.”

After the act, the minister spoke where the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, delivered the accreditation to the affiliate number two million to the National Health Insurance (Senasa) as part of the program started in his administration.

The President of the Republic promised to refer tomorrow to the issue of the increase in COVID-19 infections. Like every Tuesday, the Health Cabinet will meet in the National Palace.

The COVID-19 bulletin number 270, published this Monday, December 14, indicates the report of 492 cases with a daily positivity that is around 17.42%.

The bulletin also highlights the death of about three people, while Public Health warns of an increase in hospital occupancy in the last 24 hours.

In this sense, the occupancy is around 31%, with a total of 863 people hospitalized. Similarly, there are 234 patients in intensive care units (ICU), which occupy 50% of ICUs.