Haitians forced to wear masks in market

Traders and visitors from the neighboring country ignore the use of masks and physical distancing in the bilateral market.

Pedernales, DR

The Specialized Corps for Land Border Security (Cesfront) and members of the Army and intelligence of the Dominican Republic stepped up operations this Monday so that Haitian and Dominican merchants wear masks and observe physical distancing in the border market.

The measure is applied to comply with the Ministry of Public Health protocol to avoid contagion by Covid-19.

The Cestront and the Army maintain controls and surveillance attached to the primary mission of maintaining a permanent security device in the formal border crossings, especially at the gates through the land border to the neighboring country.

Reaction
It was reported that the military received instructions from Brigadier General Frank Mauricio Cabrera Rizek, ERD, by order of the Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Carlos Luciano Diaz Morfa, for merchants and visitors from both countries, to enter the binational market with masks and to observe the physical distancing to avoid the spread of the new coronavirus.

Last week, the LISTÍN DIARIO published that in the markets of Pedernales and Dajabón provinces, Haitians were not wearing masks and observing the physical distance to avoid Covid-19. Despite the controls, the foreigners are hard-headed, and many did not obey the call of the military authorities.

The soldiers were supervised by the commander of the Cesfront in this border zone, who instructed that Haitians and Dominicans should not be allowed to enter the market without masks, especially as an established input to avoid Covid-19.

Little support
The soldiers in charge of safeguarding the sovereignty of this border crossing have been working without support from the health authorities since the surveillance services of the Ministry of Public Health in the division with this side are limited to a vaccination post against the virus for Haitians arriving at the binational market, although many have also evaded the inoculation process.

It should be noted that Haitian traders and visitors are regularly seen without masks, which has become for the soldiers a difficult situation to handle, given that Public Health as the governing institution only maintained a vaccination post, where few Haitians entering the commercial exchange are inoculated. In contrast, others have stopped coming to the binational market to avoid getting the doses against the virus.

In Haitian border communities, very few are using the masks, where the vast majority have not been vaccinated and where it is heard that there is no coronavirus in Haiti.