The Dominican Republic is still unsuccessfully carrying out “negotiations” with other countries to donate the COVID-19 vaccines that began to expire last year, including a batch that expires in 15 days (March 31).
It is recalled that Vice President Raquel Peña said a few weeks ago that they were carrying out procedures in this regard, something that is still being done but still without achieving “anything concrete,” the Minister of Public health, Daniel Rivera.
The problem would be in the lack of interest of the populations of those nations. Rivera assured that “there are countries that have the same lack of interest in vaccination as ours,” and that “the same feeling that you are seeing here is happening in other countries.”
In the next week Public health will inform the number of doses that expire on March 31. Daniel Rivera reiterated the call to apply the injection.
Up to 15 days without receiving anyone
The health authorities have been closing the vaccination centers that operate in private establishments due to low attendance, and many wait a few more days to decide on their closure. However, public centers will continue to function.
Some of the vaccination centers have up to 15 days without receiving citizens.
The inoculation day that is carried out house by house has yielded good results, although it is slow. Rivera affirmed that while thousands are vaccinated in a center, with the days in the neighborhoods they can reach 100.
The levels of contagion have dropped thanks to the fact that 70% of the unvaccinated already have antibodies as a result of the omicron variant, according to a study he did Public health.
Until this Tuesday only 140 people are hospitalized because of COVID-19.
Informed consent is missing
The Minister of Health requested cooperation from the Dominican Association of Teachers and the teachers themselves to ensure that the children have the informed consent signed by their parents to receive the dose.
Due to the lack of these documents, the process is slow, and only between 4,000 and 6,000 children are being immunized per day.
The Ministry of Education is going to carry out a campaign so that parents are motivated to continue with the vaccination of their children.
