- October 18th, 2021, 11:56 am
#633496
Just as it looked like the government herein the DR had finally come to it's senses and things were almost back to normal, authoritarianism raises it's ugly head again. When it was announced they were doing away with the curfew about a week ago, in the same press release the Health Minister said it was against his advice and was "too early". Rumors have been circulating that some other form of restriction would take it's place. Sure enough, when I went to the supermarket today there was a military police officer at the door, and he informed me I could not enter without my "tarjeta de vacuna". I am double vaxxed, and have the card, but had no idea I would need it to buy groceries (this just started today.") I had to make a half-hour round trip back to the house to get my card. The rule applies to all indoor stores, banks, and a lot of other business spaces. My guess is the Health Minister and some other paranoid types in the govt. negotiated this in return for going along quietly with the dropping of the curfew. In a country with an official population of 11 million (plus at LEAST 2 million illegal Haitians) new cases are down to about 500 a day and deaths below 5. About 70% of the population is vaxxed. They had vaccinations available there at the store, and there was a long line of mostly young people signing up to get theirs. I suppose it's an effective strategy if your goal is to get 100% compliance at any cost, but that doesn't mean I need to like it.