At 7:20 a.m. Tuesday, the countdown began for the virus that took thousands of lives from Dominicans to leave the country.
Ramón de Lara Military Hospital, where the first case of the virus was treated on March 1, 2020, it has become “the place where everything begins to end” for the Dominican Republic.
Doctors, nurses, inmates, epidemiologists and other members of the medical center, amid applause, began the operation of placing the first doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
“This nightmare is starting to end”This is how the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, described the process that began in the hospital with the inoculation of its deputy director, Colonel Ramón Familia Alcántara.
The Ministry of Public Health, Plutarco Arias, together with the medical staff of the medical center, was responsible for place the first puncture on Alcántara, who immediately claimed to be “very well”.
“I have already climbed the Covid area to see the patients and so far everything has been the same, there was no problem, no pain, no dizziness“He said he was” totally asymptomatic. “
Since then, the hospital’s deputy director has said he feels “proud” on behalf of his entire staff. they were chosen as the first medical center to treat the first cases of the virus in the country, and now for the placement of the first vaccines.
According to Alcántara, the Ramón de Lara epidemiology department currently manages vaccine logistics.
The nurses react
As early as this morning, the nurses were already eagerly waiting at the hospital to receive the vaccines and place them in place for all the medical staff.
One of them, after being vaccinated, said that she feels “well, without dizziness, vomiting or anything else”.
In a tour of the facilities by Listín, the nurses said that so far no one has had any allergic reactions or side effects.
First vaccination
Colonel Alcántara, Major Víctor Martínez and Major Josefina Jiménez de la Cruz were the first volunteers to be injected to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The light at the end of the tunnel,” Alcántara described the vaccine, and urged the population to inject, “because it’s the only thing we can trust.”
The vaccine that was given is Covishield from AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical, which came from India Monday night at America’s International Airport.
The first batch of 110,000 vaccines was received by President Abinader in the company of the Vice President of the Republic and the coordinator of the health office, Raquel Peña.
“This afternoon they are already starting to move to the other hospitals in Covid.”, promised the president and asked the Dominican population to receive the vaccine.
The first case of Covid-19
On March 1, 2020, the Italian Claudio Pascualini, the first coronavirus patient in the country, was hospitalized at the Ramón de Lara military hospital.
Since then, the virus has spread rapidly throughout the country, concentrating a large number of deaths and infections.