Dominican Republic recovers from tragic COVID-19 death projections
The Dominican Republic exceeds the tragic projections that announced an increase in the number of deaths from COVID-19 and remain at less than half of those estimates.
In mid-July, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimated that, by November 1, the number of deaths from COVID-19 would reach 6,000 people. However, the projection models made by the independent body of the University of Washington holds the estimate at 2,329 for the same date.
According to the new estimate, in the month of October and the two days remaining to September there will be some 228 deaths in the country, starting from the 2,101 accumulated reported by the Ministry of Health in its epidemiological bulletin published last Tuesday.
The IHME makes its projections based on three scenarios that have to do with the current figures of each country, with the relaxation of health measures and social isolation to control the spread of the coronavirus and with which governments achieve the universal use of masks in the population.
In the first two scenarios, the projections of deaths for the Dominican Republic are between 2,174 and 2,547, with an average of 2,329, as of November 1. In the third scenario, which implies that all citizens use masks, the estimates are between 2,171 and 2,526, with an average of 2,321. That number would rise to 2,588 as of December 1 and 3,412 as of January 1, 2021.
To date, the country is experiencing a different reality with respect to COVID-19 in relation to mid-July, when the average daily deaths were around 20 cases, with a hospital occupancy that reached more than 90%.
On September 29th, however, the Ministry of Health reports three new deaths, with a hospital occupancy of 23% and an occupancy in intensive care units (ICU) of 33 percent.