Expert suggests the total closure of the capital

Faced with more than 7,000 cases of Covid in the last week, the Pediatric Association supports a quarantine.

Santo Domingo, DR

Dominican medical scientist Ruben Peralta, based in Qatar, in the Middle East region, has proposed the total confinement of Greater Santo Domingo due to the aggressive resurgence of the virus in the country,

Peralta is Deputy Medical Director of the Trauma Center and Programs in Qatar and an expert in the management of Covid-19.

Along with his proposal for the confinement of the population, Peralta suggests carrying out interventions and case tracking and following the mass vaccination of the population,

He also considers it “imprudent” to force the semi-presential opening of the school year starting today amid an epidemiological alert in Greater Santo Domingo due to the high rate of transmissibility of the virus worrying levels of occupation of hospital beds.

The specialist warned that an outbreak in Santo Domingo could quickly turn into an outbreak in other provinces of the country, San Cristóbal, San Pedro de Macorís, and even reach the tourist poles, which will have repercussions on the detriment of this activity.

In his opinion, what is currently necessary is to tighten the measures, stop the observed relaxation, and speed up the vaccination. “Once you have a large number of vaccinated population you can start to relax the measures,” he said.

He said that despite the high levels of transmission of the virus, demonstrations are being allowed indoors, including those of political and governmental groups, the teteo, massive attendance in amusement centers, and now talk of opening schools.

Likewise, in his opinion, a government of national unity against the virus is necessary. He suggested creating a great commission, with the participation of all the political parties, economic, religious, and social sectors, academics, health workers, and representatives of the media to accompany the Health Cabinet in the decisions aimed at controlling the virus.

More than 7,000 new cases in last week
At least 37 intensive care beds and 89 intermediate care beds for Covid-19 were available yesterday in the private clinics of Greater Santo Domingo, with an average bed occupancy rate of 73 and 67% of the total of 135 and 271 beds available for patients with the virus.

Meanwhile, although it has a more significant number of beds available in the public sector, the occupancy of its intensive care units was 75% yesterday, reaching 100% in centers of high demand and 69% in regular beds. Hospitals have 157 and 367 beds available, respectively, for people with the virus.

The demand for oxygen for patients with Covid-19 has also been growing. In Greater Santo Domingo, 55% of the available units remain occupied, reaching 66% in hospitals and 35% in clinics. The public network has 151 ventilators available, and the private sector has 83 for patients with the virus.

National occupancy
On a national scale, the average occupancy of ICU beds was 57% yesterday, with 323 hospitalized critical patients; 41% of intermediate beds, 1,026 patients admitted; and 45% ventilators, with 201 patients under assisted ventilation.

The Covid hospital network has 2,519 beds nationwide, with 565 ICU beds and 444 ventilators.

Incidence of cases
Yesterday, the country registered 838 new positive diagnoses of the Covid-19 virus, bringing to 7,379 the number of cases detected during the last eight days and four recent deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 3,610.

THE PEDIATRICS
To quarantine.
The Dominican Society of Pediatrics president, Marcos Díaz Guillén, emphasized that the international and national data indicate that the pandemic maintains very active levels so that in a situation such as the one being experienced, a return to quarantine is necessary.

Continuing to live
“We have defended and we defend going back to nearly normal living, but we must take into account that this does not mean an absolute position, because many countries that have decided to open, have closed again as they did in the first months after the pandemic was declared,” said Díaz Guillén.
He admits that the economy cannot be ignored because it is necessary to continue producing, but to do so, the population must continue living nearly normally.