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

Abstract

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.