COVID-19

This is not something to get personal about imo because the DR government rightly or wrongly has more than enough vaccines ordered for it's population and is promoting this policy of a third jab on a volutary basis.

But expats deceiving the generosity of the Dominican state by taking a seperate full course of Pfizer vaccine just to travel and avoid quarantine or for other reasons are worthy of harsh words.

Centers prioritize Pfizer vaccine for first dose against COVID-19

https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/ … DJ27483527

“We are only placing the second dose of Sinovac. We have Pfizer priority because it must be stored below 70 degrees, but once it reaches five degrees Celsius it must be exhausted, at least in 72 hours, we must prevent that vaccine from being damaged and that is why we have to give it priority ", Figuereo said.

It seems like there is a state of crisis in the vaccination stakes. Needing to use Pfizer vaccines before it is not usable, DR is going to go for another first; Pfizer jab first then Sinovac jab second. No medical proof this is safe also.

And it still does not deal with the 6 million plus Sinovac jabs they now have in stock with a confused population increasingly reluctant to get vaccinated.

Like the many curfew changes, this gives such a confusing and constantly changing message when clarity is needed.

I understand their reluctance. These officials have no idea what they are doing!  That is very very clear.

Darlene!  How would rate your new President!  Our PM 🇨🇦 Is a disaster!

well I have some mixed feelings. I like some of what he is doing and dislike other parts. BUT as an expat  I have no say and no vote, so I watch and hope!

By my reckoning, DR has ordered at least 15m Sinovac jabs and about 13.9m have been delivered and used. It has ordered 10m Pfizer jabs and has received about 700k. It has ordered 10m AZ jabs and had received about 700k. It has a poulation of about 10.4m and has used just over 8.8m total jabs to date. It probably has anothet 200k Pfizer coming this week and maybe some millions of AZ shortly. 35m for 10.4m or perhaps the 7.8m target for herd immunity. Fourth shot idea next? They may as well go all in.

Supply is well ahead of dwindling demand. Last 3 days first shots were 18.991, 9,630 and yesterday 29,941. Second jabs slightly better but only 3,574,258 fully vaccinated. But herd immunity is just around the corner we are told  so we can open up from tomorrow.

I just wish they could have concentrated on getting first and second shots. Now everybody is losing the plot and confidence and it is lose lose lose time.

You have been there so many years.  No citizenship?

Its a  mess frankly!    No one seems to be keeping proper track of anything.  I am  due to get my second astra zeneca and no word on arrivals yet.

These numbers  mean nothing in terms of herd immunity as we dont actually know who is getting shots, who still needs them, who has had extras and  how many  non residents are getting them.

gcl1221  lets stay on topic honey. I will message you privately

Over 400k AZ shots came just over a week ago so you should have no problem getting your second.

CDC says NOT to mix BRANDS of vaccinations!!!!

planner wrote:

I understand their reluctance. These officials have no idea what they are doing!  That is very very clear.

I completely agree and like so many politicians they are all the same and for that reason alone we should not believe that the vaccine is safe without proper testing.  That does not mean using the entire world population as their guinea pigs, forcing us to take an unproven vaccine that is killing many and making others severally ill.

It is everyone's choice what to do and not to do.  If people think the vaccine is safer than risking and catching COVID, so be it.  If people decide that it is too great a risk for them, then so be it.

We humans think we are too damn smart and can outwit Mother Nature but take a look at the animal kingdom.  They always survive without human interaction, no matter what the cause.  In fact, help from humans is often their disaster!  We will survive without the vaccine...have faith people.

housedoctor2000 wrote:

CDC says NOT to mix BRANDS of vaccinations!!!!

supported by the WHO.

I dont think it is time to discourage vaccination rather the opposite.

The vaccination plan here has gone from good and clear to iffy and murky thanks to politics.

People can made their own vaccination choices and did so earlier based on substantive testing with clear benefits, but when government starts making choices for us with absolutely zero medical testing, it is time to wonder what is going on and back off and wait while recognized international regulatory bodies assess the benefits and risks.

It is so sad confidence is being eroded  because without adequate vaccination all Dominican society will suffer through future waves.

There is a lack of education here at play.  Formal and informal.   I believe in informed choice.  Read learn and decide.

The issue comes when they are incapable of learning.  Then Houston, we have a problem.  They listen to  rumors and innuendos. They  make choices based on misinformation and that is deadly, as we have seen. 

yes confidence is eroded! And its getting worse. Now we will be  basically  without muchcurfew starting tomorrow!  good luck.

Luck has nothing to do with it.

I agree completely.  I have had C19. I have had worse. It attacks different people differently.

As to vaccination, I don't believe in it.  I have known many who never had C19 until they received the vaccine and caught it directly from the vaccine as well as 2 that died from the vaccine in my hometown in Ohio. So for me, statistically, I lost 2 to the vax and 2 to C19.
Many I know get very sick from the vaccine for several days.

It should be the individual's choice and never used on a minor.

Unless you are able to back up your claims with proof please stop.

Properly conducted studies have been done and continue to be done showing the vaccine is safe and stops almost all serious illness due to covid. We will not be participating in the spread of misinformation.

102.4% vacinated with first dose in La Altagracia. Note the second note which confirms what I had written before in that they include people(hotel workers) from other provinces.

Delta Variant.

DR still does not have the results  of tests taken on 17th May to see of there are variants, including Delta, here. We will now the situation of twp months ago maybe next week!

Public Health: Delay of results on Delta variant attributed to demands of international laboratories

https://listindiario.com/la-republica/2 … nacionales

What we do know is that Delta is now the dominant variant in much of the USA and the cases there are climbing rapidly. And every day plenty of Americans enter without much checking.

If 75% of June tourists were Americans and every state in the🇺🇸 Has the delta, be assured that it is in the DR.

For the record this is the covid19 status in the countrt the day the new relaxd curfew begins:

They have already been partying and carrying on like its over!   Lets see in a week and  two weeks!

The worldwide trend is up everywhere again thanks to Delta. Europe being the worst where many are vaccinated. South America and Asia are not good and the USA has seen yet another increase today.

If DR can buck the trend great but I doubt it very much.

The new cases are flatter now in Santo Domingo but it is Santiago that is recording the highest number of cases (and some of the other less restricted provinces too). Sort of shows what happens when you keep things open for longer.

My guess is that the case load and hospitalizations will start growing more noticeably again after about two weeks of loser controls and that could tie in with Delta becoming dominant.

Vaccinations continue to slow and the government is adding the third shots into the totals and still talking about 'herd' immunity. 23,682 first shots yesterday and 25,658 second shots. For so called 'herd immunity', the scientific concensus is that DR would need to more than double its current fully vaccinated total which today stands at 3,629,728. It took us 4.5 months to get this far.

Confusion over the Delta Variant- from the NYTimes
=================================
Confusion over Delta​
​
There are two basic questions to ask about any variant of the Covid-19 virus: Is it more contagious than earlier versions of the virus? And is it more severe?​
When a variant is more contagious, it leads to a rise in the number of infections, especially among the unvaccinated. When a variant is more severe, it causes worse symptoms for the average person who gets the virus and leads to a greater percentage of cases that result in hospitalization or death.​
It is easy to confuse these two different concepts when a variant — like Delta — begins spreading. If the variant is more contagious, it often appears to be more severe as well because the increase in caseloads leads to an increase in the raw number of hospitalizations and deaths, as Dr. Robert Wachter of the University of California, San Francisco, explained to me.​
In response, journalists and some experts talk about the new variant being “worse,” “riskier” or “more dangerous” — broad concepts that muddy the difference between contagiousness and severity. “Part of the problem is imprecision in language,” Dr. Rebecca Wurtz, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Minnesota, said.​
The difference between the two concepts is important. If a new variant is not actually more severe, it doesn’t present a greater threat to a typical person who contracts Covid. Vaccinated people would remain protected. For children too young to be vaccinated, serious Covid symptoms would still be exceedingly rare — rarer than many other everyday risks, like riding in a car — and still concentrated among children with other health problems.​
After the Alpha variant began spreading late last year, many people assumed that it was both more contagious and more severe. The data soon told a different story, though: Alpha seems to be only more contagious.​
Now the story may be repeating itself with Delta. It is significantly more contagious than even Alpha by almost every measure. It does not appear to be more severe, based on the data available so far.​
‘A sneaky opportunist’​
​
That data remains messy, and it could change. You can find narrow statistics that point in any direction, variously suggesting that Delta is more severe, similarly severe or less severe than earlier versions of the virus. But the bulk of the evidence indicates no meaningful change.​
“As far as anyone can tell, Delta isn’t more dangerous in the sense that it causes worse disease,” Wurtz told me. “It’s a sneaky opportunist, not a mayhem man.”​
Janet Baseman, a University of Washington epidemiologist, said: “I have not seen compelling evidence that the Delta variant is more severe.” Dr. Paul Sax of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told me, “This sense of greater disease severity is more anecdotal than driven by actual data.” Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Research said, “I don’t think it makes kids sicker.”​
Dr. Aaron Richterman of the University of Pennsylvania said that he did not think Delta required vaccinated parents to behave differently than they did a few weeks ago. Richterman has young children himself, and his family has not changed its behavior, he said.​

I don't think there can be any confusion over Delta.

Studies show it is 1000 times more transmittable than the original virus and that the effects kick in one day sooner at 4 days and it is evading vaccines. It is affecting people with stronger immune systems - the younger.

You only have to see the effect it had in India, Indonesia and the UK and now increasingly in the USA. The UK had it's highest case count since March again today at near 60k cases and it is over 60% fully vaccinated. The Health Minister there was confirmed infected today even though he has had both AZ vaccine doses.

Delta will not be the last nor the worst variant because the virus is being given the opportunity to mutate with so many unvaccinated everywhere.

DR is in the process of removing it's controls and curfew will disappear in La Altagracia very shortly because they have reached the target set by government of having 70% of the adult population acredited to that province vaccinated. Puerto Plata is close too as is District Natioanal in Santo Domingo.

But the figures don't lie.

Vacunaterd today reports that as of yesterday there were 3,692,082 persons fully vaccinated with two shots and the population of DR is listed at 11m.

Yes as a country DR is about 33.6% of the total popluation fully vaccinated. Far from any scientifically recognised total for herd immunity and  with a mobile population. 

Now if Delta is here already and spreading, and with the partying without any controls having started, the virus is going to have a much freer path to transmit throughout DR compared to what it is finding in the UK.

A good yardstick for us is Puerto Rico with 58% of the total population fully vaccinated now with Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen and it is seeing a rapid growth in cases after controls were removed in July.

The daily bulletins continue to show a drop in cases and positivity especially in Santo Domingo with Santiago having the highest day totals recently. These figures show the effects of the longer curfew and no late alcohol sales. It will take over two weeks to start seeing any effects of the de-escalation which is progressive and has just started.

The new first time vaccination number dropped again yesterday to 20,167 on Friday. 5,336,442 with one shot or 48.5% of the total population.

Many more need to get vaccinated fully and quickly for a better future for all of us in DR. Please.

President Luis Abinader announces La Altagracia will be the first with a total opening due to the number of vaccinated

https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/ … CH27578846

President Luis Abinader announced this Saturday that La Altagracia province, the country's main tourist pole, will be the first to have a total opening after the restrictions adopted by the government to face Covid-19, according to a press release from the communications equipment of the National Palace.

"On Monday we will be meeting with the health cabinet, a draft protocol is already being prepared for the first province with total opening, which will be La Altagracia," added the president.

He said that this first protocol will be duplicated in other locations, this being the pilot project for other areas of the country that have vaccinated 70 percent of their population against Covid.

"The total opening of the La Altagracia province also means a responsibility of its citizens, its leaders and its businessmen," said the governor.

He stated that the population must learn to live with Covid and continue to protect themselves with the vaccine until reaching the highest percent, and above all continue to maintain safety protocols.

"I congratulate this province for having worked in a true unit of the public and private sectors, the hotels, the public ministry," said Abinader.

He added that the hotels together with the Ministry of Tourism coordinated and were in charge of vaccinating all their staff.

The social clubs, municipalities, churches and other sectors of society did the same job.

"Senator Virgilio Cedano informed me that the hospitals in La Altagracia are 27 percent occupied with Covid patients and the private clinics only have 10 percent," the president commented.

He stressed that the levels of contagion have also decreased dramatically in this eastern province, which has the main tourist center in the country.

"I want Altagracia to be an example so that the other provinces can continue moving in that direction, towards normality," he said.

Great - does this mean all the unvaccinated masses wanting to party will congregate in Punta Cana?

I would have been saying yes but there really isn't much of a curfew anymore!  Partying us almost full on already.

So probably those from all other areas still with any form of curfew will be hitting the un curfewed tourist hot spots!  Good luck with that.

@housedoc:
caused by lack of longterm experience and investigation every 'recomendation' is  worth less than a loose leave in the wind.

Well when I mix alcoholic drinks I get sick so mixing vaccines makes total sense to me. Just adding to the live experiments for big Pharma.

Please stop with the big pharma references.

Why was it offensive?

All I know is, I for one, will not live in fear. Been vaccinated, if it doesn't work and I die, there's three things at work, natural selection, fate, and God's plan. Relax and focus on the beauty of life everyday. Or not!

An observation. Pharmaceutical companies have not been promoting mixing of vaccines but some have sought approval for a 3rd shot of their own same vaccine.

It is a very few governments, including DR, who it could be argued are experimenting with their population by using a different third shot without proven medical testing.

We are continuing to see from recent bulletins, a fall in the rates of positivity for the country as a whole with the exception of hot spots like La Vega where if you recall there was a less stiff curfew at night.

The drop in cases and positivity is not unexpected and shows the tighter curfew and especially when tied with alcohol restrictions did work and bring down the spread of the virus.

That is behind us now and from the 14th, the alcohol sales and curfews hours were loosened. They will be further relaxed come the 21st this week, and in some provinces where the target of 70% of the adult population has been met, the curfew will go altogether.

Realistically of the virus is going to spread again we would expect to see the decline continue for about another week or so and then cases would start to increase from about 28th which is 2 weeks after the relaxation began.

Of course if Dominicans continue to use masks especially indoors and do start to socially distance and especially head to get vaccinated in droves, we may avoid another wave.

Unfortunately the research is showing Delta to be transmitted by the vaccinated and that all vaccines are less effective against infection but still do reduce significantly serious illness and death. Mask use is a neccessity indoors again apparently.

It is a pity so many still have fear of getting vaccinated.

housedoctor2000 wrote:

Why was it offensive?

It is an allusion to conspiracy theories and we are not going there.  Thanks.

Global shares slide amid Covid economic recovery fears

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57885183

This pandemic is far from over despite the optimistic plans by the UK and DR to try and live alongside the virus. They are experimenting.

IMO, you need very high vaccination numbers to get anywhere near normility and then probably some border controls along with an engaged population.

In the UK, they removed most controls today but kept the tracing app in play. And because there are so many cases, there are even more people who have been in contact with infected persons so they have to self isolate and as such many businesses are short staffed and will close early.

We have to be responsible in our particular society too, but I doubt many Domincans will.

Back to something I said a year ago, some businesses need to change to survive and here I particularly refer to hospitality, restaurants and bars. Some have and the government here has tried hard to instill change, others are in denial. Same with airlines and cruise ships.

DR had a bad day on the vacination front yesterday: 4,158 first shots and 9,621 second shots.

Absolutely correct, we all need to adapt. Business needs to adapt.  Our personal habits need to adapt.

There is an article in the press today about several crowded bars in San Fransisco de Macoris being closed for 30 days for no social distancing nor mask use control before curfew.

There are responsible bar and restaurant owners but there are far too many who dont adapt and never will unless shuttered.