Influenza pushes people to get a PCR test

In five days in the Dominican Republic, 35,102 coronavirus samples were processed, of which 4,293 new cases were detected, where a single day 16,203 samples were made, between PCR and antigens. From Monday to Friday’s report, 12 deaths were also reported.

The increase in testing occurs just when hundreds of cases of influenza are reported in people of different ages, primarily children whose parents take them to the emergency centers of private and public facilities, such as Robert Reid Cabral.

The information is confirmed by the pulmonologist Evangelina Soler, who said that they are the specialists who send patients to undergo these tests because the symptoms of covid are similar to those of other viruses circulating in the country.

“Many patients shake with respiratory symptoms very similar to coronavirus, finding a great circulation of the presence of other common viruses at this time such as influenza virus A and B, respiratory syncytial virus, metapneumovirus, which have a greater circulation than seen in previous years, but they usually occur in the months of November, December, January due to the change in temperature, which is why they are called stationary viruses,” explained Dr. Soler.

He said that the cases of influenza and flu viruses mentioned above and the coronavirus could increase due to people traveling between November and December for the holidays.

He reiterated the call to maintain the use of the mask, hand washing, and physical distancing.

Positivity
Yesterday the daily positivity of covid stood at 10.42% and that of the last weeks at 11.48%.

Seven deaths were reported, for a total of 4,165 deaths from the pandemic, while the new ones infected by Covid-19 were 1,160 patients.

The hospitalizations reported to date are 634 patients in standard Covid beds for 28% occupancy, in Intensive Care Units 250, equivalent to 43% of the beds, and 160 delicate patients connected to ventilators.

SANTIAGO
Schools without Covid
The Regional Education Office based in this city reported yesterday that it has no reports of COVID19 cases in recent days in schools of this province. The director of the state agency Marietta Díaz said that the strict protocol is maintained in schools and high schools to avoid contagion, which has produced good results so far.

Díaz specified that it is dealing with a school district where some infections were detected. However, she did not clarify whether they were only students or teachers or both human groups, but it was several days ago, not recently. Díaz indicated that an epidemic such as Covid19 of high incidence does not exclude some students and teachers infected in the area, but they have not been reported so far, even though the protocol requires it.