The Dominican Republic encounters at least five Covid-19 variants

As Brazil becomes a regional pariah, with its citizens barred from entering dozens of countries around the world due to the spread of the Amazon coronavirus variant, other viral mutations have been encountered in Latin America. This week, health authorities in the Dominican Republic stated that at least five variants could be circulating in the country. 

As of March, mutations from Belgium, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and now from the U.S. have been detected in the Caribbean country, and more are expected to appear. The virus variants were found in randomly selected samples, says Ronald Skewes, the Dominican director general of Epidemiology. 

Vaccination and pandemic numbers

The 10.8-million-people nation, reliant on tourism, has Latin America’s sixth-lowest per capita death rate. As of March 12, the country has registered 244,168 cases and 3,204 confirmed deaths. Furthermore, the government in Santo Domingo says more than 540,000 people have been vaccinated so far, as part of a plan to immunize 7.8 million people by the end of the year. New vaccine shipments are expected to arrive on March 15 and 25.

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