Dominican Republic reaches 1,501 deaths from COVID-19
Santo Domingo.- COVID-19 in the Dominican Republic has claimed the lives of 1,501 people, with 12 new deaths in the last day, according to the epidemiological bulletin 153 of the Ministry of Public Health, corresponding to August 18, 2020.
1,004 new infections were also identified, for a total of 88,127 coronavirus patients, of which 29,866 are active and 56,760 people have recovered. The PCR tests processed on this day were 4,516, for a total of 331,160 performed.
The fatality rate stands at 1.7% and positivity at 30.87%, the latter following a gradual downward trend since the beginning of August. The figures indicate that 288 people are in Intensive Care Units (ICU).
The bulletin released this morning, also adds that the average age of infections is 38 years and of deaths is 68 years, with comorbidity of arterial hypertension (34%) and diabetes (22%).
New minister
Dr. Plutarco Arias, new Minister of Public Health guaranteed that his efforts will be concentrated mainly on reinforcing plans and strategies in order to control the spread of COVID-19, as one of the urgent issues of the government headed by Luis Abinader.
He indicated that he will assume the guidelines of President Abinader by heart and that he will act in a “forceful” manner to face the health situation generated by COVID -19.
In that order, he said that he will implement a plan for the detection, isolation, tracking, and treatment of infected persons on an unprecedented scale and will guarantee the entire population access to the vaccine against the virus as soon as it is available.
“We understand that we are assuming this position with an emergency health situation and we know that our priority is to guarantee the health of the population, therefore, together with our team, we will work to strengthen the plans and destroy, we will continue the aspects that have paid off. But the priority is to control the disease so that we can dedicate ourselves to other health issues that require attention”, he explained last Monday after taking over the office.
The Ministry of Public Health briefed that in the coming days he will inform the population about the plans and programs that they will assume in all areas, but essentially the measures to counter COVID-19.