President of Dominican Republic says it’s a ‘sin’ not to vaccinate against Covid-19

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, who received Friday the second dose of the Sinovac covid vaccine, affirmed that not being inoculated against the disease “is a sin”.

Abinader, who received the first dose on May 5, received the serum this Friday in a vaccination center installed in the Liceo Benito Juarez in Cristo Rey. After leading in that sector, the launching of the pilot plan of the Integral Strategy of Citizen Security.

Speaking at the event, the governor urged the population to get vaccinated against the disease. He said not getting inoculated “is a sin”, in reference to the people who refuse to receive the serum alleging religious reasons.

The Dominican Republic has received 6.6 million doses, of which 6.3 million are from Sinovac; the rest correspond to AstraZeneca batches from the World Health Organization (WHO) Covax mechanism or purchased from India.

A total of 1.2 million people have completed vaccination in the Dominican Republic, around 13% of the adult population, while 3.5 million have received the first dose, according to data from the Vacúnate RD institutional portal.

The country is in the midst of an upsurge of contagions, which led the authorities to take measures such as the community vaccination day and to establish, from Wednesday, a new and stricter curfew for eight days, as well as the prohibition of selling alcoholic beverages after 3 PM.

The Ministry of Public Health notified this Friday 1,295 new infections of Covid-19 and four deaths due to the disease, increasing to 298,414 the total number of coronavirus cases in the country, with 3,646 deaths, while the intensive care units (ICU) are at 71% of their capacity.