DR News
Sosúa. – A fierce fire destroyed 15 homes to ashes in the Palm Village Sector of Sosua early Monday, March 16th, leaving dozens of people on the street, including children.
The cause of the fire, according to witnesses, was a burning candle that a resident left burning on a gas tank, which exploded.
Although no one was injured in the event, however, a 14-year-old teenager was hit with considerable damage in his spine when a wall that had been affected by the fire fell on him.
Source: Detras Del Rumor
Mar 17, 2020
PUERTO PLATA.- The Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) and its allies, overwhelmingly won the extraordinary municipal elections held in this Atlantic jurisdiction.
The Central Electoral Board (JCE) reported that the PRM and allies compiled a total of 26,696 votes in the municipality of San Felipe de Puerto Plata for 54.63%, surpassing the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and allies that they obtained 19,771 votes for 40.05%.
From party to party, the PRM obtained 24 thousand 517 votes to compile 49.66%, while the PLD 16 thousand 984 votes for 34.40%.
Exactly at 11:00 in the morning on Monday, the 230 electoral colleges (100%) that functioned in this municipality, San Felipe de Puerto Plata, where 49,367 votes were cast, culminated.
In the recently past electoral process, there were a total of 113 thousand 973 registered, where the votes cast were 52 thousand 76 (45.69%), the valid votes are 49 thousand 167 (94.80%), null votes 2 thousand 683 (5.15%) , in addition to 26 suffrages observed (0.05%).
According to the electoral body, the municipality of San Felipe de Puerto Plata concentrates almost 48% of the voters in this Atlantic jurisdiction, that is, about 125,722 voters out of the 260,330 voters in the entire province.
Source: Puerto Plata Digital
Mar 17, 2020
PUERTO PLATA.- The Carnival Cruise Line company announced that, due to the threat of the coronavirus, it has suspended operations for several weeks at the Amber Cove terminal in Maimon, Puerto Plata.
This provision was made by the cruise company long before the Dominican Port Authority (Apordom) decided to suspend the landings of cruise ships in the ports of the Dominican Republic due to the coronavirus.
The suspension of all docking and disembarkation operations for cruise ships in local ports was issued last Saturday “until further notice” due to the threat of the spread of the coronavirus since eleven cases have been confirmed in the country.
This is a part of the measures that governments worldwide are adapting “to safeguard collective health” in the face of the threat of spread and contagion of coronavirus, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Source: Puerto Plata Digital
Mar 17, 2020
After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 virus a pandemic, the United States Embassy announced that it is canceling scheduled visa appointments beginning Monday, 16 March 2020. The visa services will be re-opened as soon as is possible, according to a press release from the US Embassy. The note said that fee paid will be applied to a visa request made in the next 12 months.
The US Embassy is telling travelers that visa appointments for emergency travel are being kept. The US Consulate says that it will continue to process those non-immigrant visa requests that do not require an interview. The US Consulate says that certain group visa travel and visa renewals without an interview may be handled online.
The US Consulate says that those with existing appointments will be advised of the new dates for their interviews.
The US Consulate says that the American Citizen Services will continue to assist those US citizens living or visiting the Dominican Republic.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Mar 17, 2020
Dominicans have smartphones, have a relative or friend in Italy, Spain or the US, and have been known to take collective actions. Add those three together and you can understand why many who can are not waiting for the authorities to play by the book and order the population to carry out only essential activities. It is already happening, faster than one would think.
A slowdown in normal sports, nightlife and shopping activities has taken over the Dominican Republic. People can feel this in the reduction in traffic jams. Yet, first a sort of panic spread over cities and thousands of Dominicans went grocery shopping, as happens in preparation for a hurricane. Social media spread news that the government would order a lockdown of the population after the Sunday, 15 March municipal elections and people wanted to be prepared.
Almost everyone in the Dominican Republic has a friend or relative who lives in the United States or Europe who is telling them how things are there. After thousands filled supermarkets at the end of last week, supermarket chains were prompt to tell their clients there was no reason to panic, that they would not run out of supplies. The supermarkets said the farms were supplying them as usual and would continue to do so. Supermarket chains report sales were up around 50%.
News sources carried stories on major entertainment and business events being canceled. These include the Gwen Stefani presentation at Isle of Light, the Cheyenne presentation in April at Altos de Chavon in La Romana, and the Dominican Travel Exchange in Punta Cana. And fewer Dominicans are showing up at restaurants, bars and clubs. Videos are circulating on social media of how the Italians didn’t take the virus seriously at the start and have had to pay a high price.
Meanwhile, the Dominican government announced that flights from Europe would be cancelled as of Monday, 16 March. The Ministry of Public Health update up to Saturday, 14 March was that there are now six more official cases added to the first five, for a total of 11 officially confirmed cases. All cases still are related to people who have been abroad, namely Italy and Spain, and have inadvertently spread the disease.
Cruise ship arrivals are canceled. One of the recent cases in the Dominican Republic is of a Dominican doctor who had been on the Costa Favolosa cruise ship. Following the recent global developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Italian cruise line Costa Cruises announced it would voluntarily suspend voyages on all of its cruise ships until 3 April 2020. The decree also affects the ferry service from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Santo Domingo.
The Ministry of Public Health continues to centralize all testing at the Dr. Defillo National Laboratory. Public Health Minister Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas said that this is done for security reasons. But in an interview carried out on Tuesday, 10 March, with investigative journalist Nuria Piera, he said the government does not rule out allowing private labs from carrying out the test. Reports are that some private labs already have the test, but it costs RD$7,000 compared to free at the government lab.
The Minister says that so far the Ramon de Lara Hospital at the San Isidro Air Base is where all those in isolation or tested for the virus are cared for now. He said the decision came naturally when the patients that usually visit the center stopped going after it was known the center was caring for the coronavirus patients and suspected cases. Sánchez Cárdenas says that nationwide there are 375 intensive care beds and the plan is to increase these in the near future to 600 beds. The centers are located in Puerto Plata, Higuey, Santiago and Santo Domingo. The Ramón de Lara Hospital has capacity for 70 Covid-19 patients. Another 15 beds with ventilator machines reportedly will be added this week to the Ramón de Lara Hospital.
Officially, the Dominican Republic is still in the containment phase of the disease. But the limited testing means the 11 confirmed cases as of 15 March could be more. Thus, the voluntary isolation undertaken by Dominicans is what is most prudent.
The Ministry of Public Health has a hotline for people to call in case the two key symptoms of fever and dry cough. This is 809 686-9140, or 809 200-4091 for toll free calls from provinces from 8am to 8pm. There is also a Whatsapp telephone at 829 542-7009.
Source: DR1, Eldia
Mar 17, 2020
It seems that on average, only 30% of eligible citizens voted in the municipal election. In the National District, the capital city, the preliminary vote was 24% with 54% of the votes counted. Analysts will be answering many questions as they look into several of the possible reasons for the high abstention.
Did the Covid-19 scare have an effect on voter turnout? Did the young people go to the beach instead of voting? Or was it that the ruling PLD party voters not turn out after polls said they were losing? Were government employees a large part of those who didn’t vote? Did the PLD political patronage model collapse? Was the turnout just normal for a separate municipal election? Were people just tired after being asked to vote for a third time? What effect did the canceled municipal election of 16 February have on the rescheduled election given that people have not been given a clear explanation for the e-voting glitch?
Actually, the last time a separate municipal election was held was in 1968. There were joint municipal and congressional elections held in 1998, 2002 and 2006, when the vote was around 40%.
Source: DR1, CDN
Mar 17, 2020
The general verdict to be read from the municipal election is that the Dominican people want new authorities to govern the country. The leading opposition party swept most of the 158 municipalities in the country. When the vote count was stopped at 2:55am on Monday, 16 March, the PRM was the clear winner of the election, despite a record high abstention.
The PRM lead in 14 of the 19 municipalities with the most population. The PLD lead in Santo Domingo North and Santiago.
In the National District, with 54% of the votes counted Carolina Mejia of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) had a comfortable lead of 60% to 38% of her nearest contender, Domingo Contreras of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).
In Higuey, Karina Aristy running for a coalition of the Partido Liberal Reformista and the ruling PLD, lost her bid for a fifth city government to the coalition of parties backing PRM candidate Rafael Duluc “Cholitín,” with 68% of the votes counted. Duluc maintains an almost double amount of votes to Aristy. This election could have an effect on the bid for reelection by senator Amable Aristy Castro, a long time political kingpin in the east of the country.
In Puerto Plata, the PRM candidate Roquelito García of clearly defeated incumbent Walter Musa who sought to be reelected for a fourth time with the backing of the ruling PLD. With 58% of the vote counted, García was winning with a difference of 50% to 35%.
In Santiago, incumbent Abel Martínez running for the PLD will be the second largest city mayor for another four years. With 70% of the votes counted, Martinez had a lead of 45% to 34% over the PRM candidate, Ulises Rodríguez. Martínez ran for the PLD, but he also had the backing of former President Leonel Fernandez, a PLD dissident. Martinez is regarded as the best mayor the city has had over the past two decades.
Manuel Jimenez, running for the PRM, pulled a victory in Santo Domingo East, the municipality with the most eligible voters in the country. With 54% of the votes accounted for, He had 51% of the vote to 30% of Luis Alberto Tejeda of the ruling PLD.
Source: DR1, Elcaribe
Mar 17, 2020
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Despite the fact that several countries have closed their borders and restricted the arrival of people from China, Italy and other nations as a preventive measure to COVID-19, the Dominican Republic still allows the entry of passengers arriving from those countries through different airlines.
This is confirmed by a statement from the JetBlue airline, in which its clients are informed that all those who have been in China in the last 14 days will only be able to travel to Punta Cana (PUJ) and Santo Domingo (SDQ), and no another destination in the Dominican Republic.
So far, the Dominican Republic has taken restrictive measures with flights from Italy, however there are passengers who have entered the country making stops at other terminals such as Spain, among others.
JetBlue has used its digital channels to inform its customers of the measures they have taken against the new coronavirus and of the restrictions that exist in the destinations to which they travel.
Source: Supernoticias
Mar 13, 2020
A commission of technicians from the US Federal Transportation Administration (TSA) is inspecting the airlines that operate regular flights from the DR to the United States, to ensure they are complying with the Covid-19 preventive measures, recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the protocol put into effect by the WHO, airline personnel must ask passengers about their origin and report any flu-like symptoms passengers may have.
As reported, the TSA officers who arrived last Sunday, will remain until Saturday, 14 March 2020. The officers are also inspecting Dominican airports and the standards and levels of security established in the terminals by the Specialized Airport and Civil Aviation Security Corps (CESAC).
They are meeting with the managers of the airline companies to ensure more strict and responsive compliance with preventive measures to reduce the possible spread of the coronavirus-19.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Mar 13, 2020
