High Demand For Antigen And PCR Tests In The Dominican Republic As The COVID-19 Curve Rises

The delivery and printing of the COVID-19 antigenic test results at the Dominican Ministry of Public Health's main office were delayed due to a problem with the internet network, which infuriated dozens of people who had been waiting for a diagnosis from early morning, Diario Libre reported.

Rosmery Estévez, who took a taxi from Los Guaricanos to be one of the first to be seen and obtain the results of the test for her nine-year-old daughter who would be operated on for adenoids, shared her experience of the incident.

“At 5:50 we were already here and at 8:30 they took the sample. I was number four, but now we are waiting to see if the system arrives because the girl needs that paper to have surgery tomorrow and you don't have the 1,700 pesos to do it elsewhere,” Estévez declared.

The newly arrived patients were informed that it was possible only to work with PCR tests since the results are taken between 24 and 48 hours and they were not affected by the lack of a system, due to technological problems.

Since the internet remained unavailable in the morning, many users proceeded to the neighboring Santo Socorro Hospital, where there was such a high demand that the vaccination table had to be utilized as an auxiliary to help people who had a suspicion of contagion fill out their registration forms.

While her assistant put the swabs into the noses of the youngsters and adults present, Dr. Lima, the post's supervisor, attempted to establish order by allocating shifts.

Lima agreed that the demand for testing has increased recently, with an estimated 100 tests being performed daily and the positivity rate rising significantly.

For its part, the Dominican Society of Infectious Diseases recognized that “the country is on an ascending curve of respiratory infections of viral origin. These are mainly produced by influenza viruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and SARS-CoV-2 producer of COVID-19.”

In its most recent bulletin, the Ministry of Public Health reported 1,947 active cases of Covid and a positivity of 22.48%.