Just over 38,000 people received third dose against COVID-19

To date, 38,133 booster doses against coronavirus disease have been applied in the Dominican Republic.

The figures are posted on the official website of the vaccination plan, which was released on Thursday, July 7.

The country began applying a third dose against COVID-19 earlier this month with health personnel and people with comorbidity.

The application of this additional dose is voluntary for those who have the two initial doses contemplated in the scheme and must be of a different brand.

The Government established a difference of four weeks from the last vaccine in having received the Sinovac vaccine, which has been applied the most, and 12 weeks for AstraZeneca.

The decision of a third dose generated criticism to the Government and calls for attention, even from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The regional organization recommended the country not rush with the booster dose and pointed out that there are no scientific studies, for the moment, that support the efficacy of combining vaccines.

It also pointed out that it is best to prioritize continuing efforts to immunize a large part of the population with two doses of the same vaccine.

So far, 8,572,939 doses have been administered in the Dominican Republic: 5,131,732 received the first dose, and 3,403,094 have gotten the second, representing 32.30% of the total population.

De-escalation
Since yesterday, Wednesday, the first phase of the de-escalation of the curfew began in the country to leave behind the restrictive measures applied by COVID-19.

The curfew, from Monday to Friday, throughout the national territory, starts at 10:00 at night until 5:00 in the morning, and on weekends it will begin at 7:00 at night. After that, there will be two additional hours for people to get home.

This first stage will last one week, to start the next one on July 14, with a curfew from 11:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and at 9:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, with two hours of free transit.

At this point, the sale of alcoholic beverages will be authorized until curfew time.

In the last phase, scheduled for the 21st of this same month, the curfew will be unified at 11:00 p.m. Monday through Sunday, with two hours of free transit.

“From that moment on, we will be opening, and eliminating the curfew in each province that reaches 70% of its population vaccinated with the two doses,” explained the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader.