Health January 15, 2021 | 2:00 pm

Some 343 people have been infected more than 90 days with Covid-19

One of them remained positive for 272 days.

 

 

Santo Domingo, DR

The Dominican Republic records the case of a patient who remained 272 days positive to the COVID-19 virus, being the case that the longest time has been captured by the system so far as being positive with the virus between one test and another.

Meanwhile, the epidemiological surveillance system registers a list of 343 cases of people who have remained positive for the COVID virus for more than 90 days in the country. The information was provided to Listín Diario by the National Director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Donald Skewes.

The Italian 54 days

Last April, the Italian Claudio Pascualini, who was the first imported case of the Covid-19 virus registered in the Dominican Republic, caught the country’s attention and made the front pages of the newspapers. Pascualini was discharged from the hospital after 54 days and tested positive for the virus in the PCR tests that were carried out.

“Mr. Pascualini has been the patient who has had more PCR tests done in the Dominican Republic, all of them positive, but today we feel happy because he is discharged, the important thing is that he is well, we are happy with the recovery he has had, and we wish him a long life,” said Dr. Rafael Sanchez Cardenas. The latter at that time was the Minister of Public Health.

In addition to Pascualini, who left the hospital last April 22nd, a Dominican woman, Elena Trinidad Lamarche, 65 years old, tested positive for Covid-19, was admitted to the Doctor Ramón de Lara Military Hospital for about 42 days.

The following vaccinations are available.

In another order, the National Director of Epidemiology pointed out that even if a person who has had COVID maintains antibodies to the virus for some time, they will be vaccinated without any inconvenience when the country has vaccines.

Dr. Skewes said that the vaccine is not contraindicated in those cases and that, on the contrary, the person will have greater immunity against the virus.

Cases of re-infection

Last November, Dr. Skewes revealed to Listín Diario that the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) had registered nationwide 343 people who have two positive tests for Covid-19 within more than 90 days, representing 0.26 percent of the cases, so they qualify for investigations where it will finally be proven whether there was reinfection of the coronavirus or not.

He said that all those cases have to exhaust a procedure that requires time, where the clinical picture of each person will be reviewed. The MSP will have to confirm if those tests are still in the laboratories where the affected people were made since, by law, the clinical laboratory must keep them for a specific time.

Almost 21% of positivity

Another important aspect is that the positivity percentages of the Covid samples processed in the last four weeks continue to show an increase. Yesterday, this indicator was established at 20.92%, that is, out of every 100 tests performed, almost 21 are positive for the virus.

According to bulletin 301 of the Epidemiology Department of the Ministry of Public Health, the positivity of the samples processed in the last 24 hours was 22.81% when 1,104 positive cases were diagnosed in 9,083 samples processed in public and private laboratories.

Total tests.

The country has accumulated 932,589 processed tests since the beginning of the pandemic, of which 187,487 are recorded as positive.

Active virus.

Yesterday the Nation reported 44,535 cases of people remaining with the active virus. Those recovered from the disease total 140,524 and those discarded 745,102.

Curfew.

The country has recorded a pandemic resurgence, forcing a prolonged state of emergency, a curfew, and the tightening of health protocols.

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