Last Wednesday, the Dominican president, Luis Abinader, made the unexpected announcement that left a large part of the population of this nation on tenterhooks, taking into account that until hours before the health authorities insisted on the need to take care of themselves, in the use of masks and the prohibition of entering places without the vaccination scheme.
Certainly, the announcement by the head of state that “measures such as the use of the mask, the need to present the vaccination card to access places, or the restrictions in public spaces, today, are the individual responsibility of each and every one of us”, stirred up society.
And although the president assured that the government will maintain and continue to voluntarily invite the population to be vaccinated to complete the program and guarantee full access to the drug, that did not reassure those who consider that the pandemic maintains its presence and with these measures it will return with new waves of infections.
It is true that the country has reported in recent weeks a reduction in hospital occupancy due to Covid-19, as well as in new cases and a low rate in death statistics. However, the question is whether we are at the moment to say goodbye to masks and leave care to the free will of mortals.
The Minister of Public Health, Daniel Rivera, came out in defense of the measure and said that the president’s decision was made after two weeks of studies with the Health Cabinet and after recent investigations such as that of Harvard University, United States.
Finally, he clarified that the vaccination process was not suspended and will continue both in adults and in children from five to 11 years of age.
We will have to wait for the evolution of the disease in the coming days, weeks and months, to know if its development proves the Dominican authorities right or returns to the annoying restrictions, which helped control this pandemic as much as possible with sequel to millions of deaths.
mem/ema
