President Luis Abinader affirmed that if necessary the Government will resume the offer of Covid insurance “RD Insurance Tourism Assistance Plan” to guarantee health coverage to tourists traveling to the Dominican Republic, a model that bore fruit in difficult times of the pandemic and that it is over.
Speaking exclusively for Listín Diario, the president explained that many insurances have incorporated coverage for Covid-19 and it is no longer an unknown case, as when the pandemic began and it was not incorporated into normal health insurance, in addition to the fact that the operators have not felt the need for it to be restored.
Abinader said that, however, the Government will be pending, “in sight” to maintain what has been achieved by implementing this insurance, which until now has not been asked to be restored.
“In case it is needed, we will study it,” explained President Abinader, regarding the fact that the Covid insurance that was applied through Banreservas insurance has already ended and the world is experiencing a new wave of variants of the coronavirus.
Previously, President Abinader explained that “we have to learn to live with Covid”, whose disease is in a fifth wave in the world and the levels of contagion are high, the lethality is 0.88. He indicated that according to specialists it is in a plateau stage the tendency is to go down.
Covid insurance model
Health insurance for tourists traveling to the country at this time is paid by those visitors, because the program ended and was supplemented by taking free samples from travelers.
The country has a high proportion of people vaccinated with a first and second dose. Currently, the number of vaccinated with a third dose is also growing and there are those who have a fourth. Vaccination for children aged five to 11 years was also announced.
The RD Safe Tourism Assistance Plan managed to impact more than 400,000 tourists dDuring its validity, from September 15, 2020 to July 31, 2021.
Currently, tourists who for health reasons have had to stay in isolated rooms in hotel facilities bear their expenses while they are in that situation. The travel insurance for Covid-19 that covered the Dominican Government expired on July 31 of last year.
The coverage attracted thousands of visitors to the country and the model was copied by other countries.
Rafael Blanco Tejera, president of the Asonahores, had explained to this editor that the protocols, structured and implemented since the beginning of the opening of the tourism sector, contemplate that hotels have rooms to isolate any tourist infected with Covid-19 and that the hotel offers them a monitoring of their health status through allied clinics.
“This cost is assumed by the tourist himself, since the Covid insurance program offered by the Government, through Seguros Reservas, has already concluded, however, we have not had any incidents for this reason,” assured the representative of the hotel sector.
Insurance impacted more than 400,000 tourists
Seguros Banreservas, through its Public Relations office, informed this publisher in January of this year that in support of government regulations, the entity applied the RD Insurance Tourism Assistance Plan, an initiative in alliance between Seguros Reservas, the Ministry of Tourism (MITUR); the Reserve Bank and the Association of Hotels and Tourism of the Dominican Republic (Asonahores), in order to guarantee a sustainable recovery of the sector through the care, well-being and safety of all foreign tourists who visited the Dominican Republic during the situation health emergency caused by Covid-19.
The validity of the insurance was from September 15, 2020 to July 31, 2021.
This Safe Tourism RD Assistance Plan was recognized for innovation, development and implementation by the Dominican Association of Health Tourism, in the fifth version of the International Congress of Health and Wellness Tourism. Recently, it was awarded by Mercado Magazine in the Entrepreneurs of the Year 2021 award, highlighting in this opportunity the Allies to the Tourism Sector, as part of recognizing the entities that have contributed with specialized solutions to the resurgence of the local tourism sector.
Isolation zones
Following local protocols, to counteract the impact of the pandemic and continue with the recovery, several hotels in the eastern part of the country have isolated and guarded areas for travelers affected by Covid-19.
According to a report by the French Press Agency (AFP), hoteliers charge affected tourists a “derisory” rate, and it is presumed that this happens as an aid.
The country is going through the fifth wave of infections of the ómicron strain, a set of mutations of the virus that is less lethal but more polluting.
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