Dominican Republic: The Response to the Pandemic in 2021

This article presents the case of the Dominican Republic in relation to its emergency preparedness, environmental and social vulnerability framework, its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the policies implemented to manage it, and its prospects for the future. The Dominican Republic, being highly vulnerable to climate change and environmental risks, needs to be prepared for national emergencies, including the current pandemic. At the time of the pandemic, the country had a weak health system and weak public funding and, in this context, experienced a significant number of confirmed cases. The country’s trajectory in terms of the number of cases, mortality, and availability of beds and intensive care units for the disease is analyzed, and the experience is compared with other countries in the Americas. As of November 2021, the Dominican Republic has been able to respond adequately, maintaining one of the lowest case-fatality rates in the region and substantially controlling its number of cases in the last year, especially after the vaccination process was initiated. The control measures implemented in the country, consisting of restrictive and timely distancing policies, are noteworthy. Likewise, the country’s successful vaccination program is being followed up as part of these measures. Regardless of the good management of the pandemic by the Dominican Republic and the positive outlook for the future in economic and social areas, the need to improve the preparedness of the country’s health system, such as increasing public spending on health and investment in the first level of care, is emphasized. © 2022 Academia Nacional de Medicina. All rights reserved.

Dominican Republic: The response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020

The paper presents the situation in the Dominican Republic in terms of pandemic preparedness, the policies implemented to respond to it, the achievements made, and the challenges for the future. The COVID-19 pandemic found the Dominican Republic unprepared to deal with it, with significant deficiencies in the areas of prevention, early detection and notification, rapid response and mitigation, compliance with international standards, risk environment and health system strength. The country had the most infections in the entire Caribbean region and one of the most important in Latin America, however, the policies implemented were appropriate and the country faced lower rates of both serious illness and mortality, compared to the rest of the region. The health system, so far, has been able to respond, without exceeding the installed capacity in terms of beds and intensive care units. The worst part of the response preparedness is the weakness of the first level of care and its underfinancing, concluding on the necessity of investing adequately in strengthening the first level of care, implementing the population assignment using geographical criteria, developing payment for results mechanisms to increase quality and efficiency and putting in place the unified electronic medical record, in order to make it feasible to establish a prevention strategy. © 2020 Academia Nacional de Medicina. All rights reserved.