Santo Domingo. RD
Vice President and Chief of Health Raquel Peña warned on Tuesday that only the government has the power to import the various types of vaccines developed to stop COVID-19.
The vaccination plan of the Neurological Center of the Dominican Republic is coordinated by President Luis Abinader, Vice President Raquel Peña and the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) and is composed of various actors from the public and private sectors.
The information was published after a meeting chaired by the Vice President at the Directorate General of Coordination, Command, Control, Communications, Calculation and Information (C5i), during which the Director of Persecution of the Attorney General of the Republic, Judge Yeny Berenice Reynoso.
The presence of Judge Reynoso is due to the development of a strategic plan in the legal framework, through which a set of formal measures will be put in place to prevent some interested sectors from entering the illegal marketing of the vaccine against viral disease.
As reported by the Vice President, seeking to protect the well-being of the population, All companies or individuals will be sanctioned, violating the regulations set out in Decree 246-06, import the vaccine; noting also that there will undoubtedly be persecution from the prosecution for anyone who dares to seek economic benefits by marketing vaccines, playing with the health of the Dominican people and the delicate situation resulting from the pandemic.
Peña pointed out that the regulations stipulate that: “All medicines must have a health record” and that only the state is authorized to import any type of drug without a health record, through special transitional authorizations granted by the General Directorate of Medicines, Foods and Health Products. Products (DIGEMAPS) covered by Resolution no. 00053 from MSP; Therefore, it would be illegal for an entity not authorized by the appropriate authorities to import vaccines against COVID-19.
She assured that, as coordinator of the Cabinet of Health and Vice-President of the Republic, her mission is to guarantee, in these times of crisis, the effective protection of citizens’ rights and to ensure compliance with regulations relating to health services, according to the orders of the Constitution.
Date of arrival of the first vaccines
Globally, there is a delay in the arrival of vaccines due to high demand for them and the approval processes of international and local health entities, which is why countless countries have had to adjust their vaccination programs.
So far, the government of the Dominican Republic has signed 3 purchase and sale agreements, providing 20 million doses of vaccine against COVID-19 and is in negotiations with other pharmaceutical companies for the possible purchase of several doses.
Among the agreements signed by the Dominican Republic is the one established with the immunization mechanism against coronavirus “COVAX”, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO), the vaccine alliance GAVI and other international organizations, through which the country expects to receive 2 million doses .
With regard to the above, COVAX published on Wednesday, 3 February, an indicative list in which it communicates the amount of doses it has planned to distribute to the various countries that have signed the said agreement; In this, they estimate that the Dominican Republic will initially receive 542 thousand doses of vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
One of the reasons why there is no exact date of distribution is due to the fact that specifically the AstraZeneca vaccine is still awaiting WHO approval, this authorization being one of the inevitable requirements for the distribution of COVAX vaccines.