2022 opens with Covid on top

Amid a high virulence caused by the active community circulation of the omicron and delta variants of Covid-19, the influenza virus,,,,, and with indicators that mark a clear tendency to increase, the Dominican Republic begins the first days of the year 2022 in the middle of the emergence of the fifth wave of the pandemic.

Yesterday, the country reached one of its highest records of infections, with 2,056 new cases captured in the last 24 hours and a daily positivity of 37.59%.

Hospitalizations also increased, reaching 19%, 20%,,,,, and 16% of bed and ventilator occupancy, respectively.

The new year also begins under an epidemiological alert due to the rapid spread of the omicron; with a mandatory provision of the third dose of the vaccine against the virus and the option of a fourth; with high demand for diagnostic tests and medical care and with the warning of increases in cases as a result of the end of the year festivities.

Although not so frequent, doctors report having registered a case of co-infection of Covid and influenza, requiring admission.

From March 2020 to date, the country registers 4,249 deaths from Covid-19 and 421,953 infections confirmed by laboratory tests.

High incidence
The records of the first day of the year 2022 began yesterday with a very high incidence. Two thousand twenty-six new positive cases were reported and a daily positivity of 37.59%,,,,, and of the last four weeks of 8.80%.

In Santo Domingo, 599 cases were detected yesterday, in the National District 786, in Santiago 116, San Cristobal 89,,, and Puerto Plata 89. However, no mortality was reported due to Covid-9, maintaining 4,229 deaths.

Yesterday, 10,672 laboratory samples were processed, of which 5,738 were PCR,,,, and the rest were antigens.

Four hundred twenty-eight hospitalized patients were reported for a 19% occupancy of regular Covid-19 beds and 115 in ICU for an occupancy of 20%. In ventilation,, there were 74 patients for a 16% occupancy.

2021 left 1,883 deaths….
Meanwhile, during the recently the concluded the year 2021, 1,883 people died in the country due to Covid-19,,, and some 248,659 received a positive diagnosis, showing fewer deaths but more infections than those reported during 2020.

According to official records notified as of December 31, 2020, 2,414 patients had died in the country due to the virus, while on that same date in 2021, a cumulative 4,247 deaths were reported.

Likewise, during the recently concluded 2021, some 248,659 people received a positive diagnosis of Covid-19 in the country, for a cumulative total of 419,927 positive records since the start of the pandemic. In 2020, the records of positive cases accumulated as of December 31 included 170,785 confirmed diagnoses.

December 31, 2021, concluded with a daily positivity rate of 31.91% and the accumulated rate of 7.90%, these indicators, in 2020, closed at 28.27% and 15.95%, respectively.

However, 2021 ended with fewer hospitalizations due to Covid-19. The report of last December 31 records occupancy percentages of 19% in regular beds, 19% in ICU beds, and 16% in the use of ventilators, while at the end of 2020, those percentages were 39%, 53%, and 39%, respectively, with 37,186 active cases.

Third and fourth doses
As of January 31, it will be mandatory to present a third vaccination dose,,, and the fourth dose is established voluntarily in vulnerable and first-line groups.

Around 6.9 million people have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in the country and 5.7 the second dose. The third dose has been given to 1.4 million people,,, and a total of about 14 million doses have been applied.

SYSTEM

Surveillance
The strengthening of the epidemiological surveillance system, which allows the early detection of sanitary problems, their prevention, mitigation, and control, are part of the priorities of the Dominican health system.

Also, plan and execute inter-institutional work that allows the development of actions that improve the social factors of health: drinking water, basic sanitation, wastewater management, final disposal of solid waste, among other aspects related to improving the quality of the hospital network.