The Dominican Republic is a representative constitutional democracy. This rate is almost 10 percentage points higher than the levels of food insecurity observed before the pandemic. Were the guinea pigs for our family. ), total subscriptions: 1,155,493 (2020 est. In Santo Domingo, public buses sometimes require proof of vaccination, but she has never taken one. Data and research help us understand these challenges and set priorities, share knowledge of what works, and measure progress. On Dec. 29, the country also reported eight Covid-related deaths, more than it had seen in a single day in months. And then, just as they bounced back, the pandemic shuttered its borders. This has resulted in a fiscal deficit expansion given unexpected subsidies needed to counteract the rise in prices. As we already noted, tourism in Punta Cana is resuming, and workers in this sector are actively using every precaution to cope with the pandemic. Total Coronavirus Currently Infected Active Cases (Number of Infected People) Feb 15, 2020 Apr 14, 2020 Jun 12, 2020 Aug 10, 2020 Oct 08, 2020 Dec 06, 2020 Feb 03, 2021 Apr 03, 2021 Jun 01, 2021 Jul 30, 2021 Sep 27, 2021 Nov 25, 2021 Jan 23, 2022 Mar 23, 2022 May 21, 2022 Jul 19, 2022 Sep 16, 2022 Nov 14 . Weve been dealing with it for two years straight and sometimes you just want to throw in the towel and live a little, said Cara McQueeney, 27, a mental health worker from Concord, N.H., as she and her boyfriend awaited their final beachside dinner. )refined petroleum consumption: 148,200 bbl/day (2019 est. Area 48,072 sq km (18,696 sq miles) Major language Spanish. The pool scene at the Iberostar Grand Bvaro in Punta Cana. The implementation of a wastewater treatment plant and a submarine outfall in 2017 has improved sanitation and water quality for nearly 140,000 people in Puerto Plata, a major tourist destination. As to whether it was worth it, given that her husband, an anesthesiologist who was expected back at the hospital, was apparently stuck abroad, Ms. Milavec paused. In 2019, 10 American tourists had died there, several mysteriously passing away in their sleep. She resented having to carry a government-issued permission slip on her walks, which she had to limit to one a day. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) currently maintains its strongest committed portfolio among all Caribbean countries (US$103 million including mobilization). As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. )6.36% (2019 est. Additionally, many tourists decide to stay longer in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republics visitor figures have to do, in part, with its unconventional strategy for gaining a competitive advantage. Population 10.6 million. They were pretty certain she was, given that she had not left her room for days. The International Finance Corporation, the Superintendent of the Securities Market, and the Ministry of Environment launched the "Green Taxonomy" project, which seeks to implement strategies that promote the growth of the sustainable capital market and contribute to the mitigation of climate change. If you are not a fan of reading, and what to see by yourself the current situation in the DR, then just watch our video about the excursion to Isla Saona (from Punta Cana) this December, just a couple of weeks ago. After that, they will not ask you to get randomized testing. Most of the hotels have reopened and are actively working to provide the best and safest service. As one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic economies in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic entered the COVID-19 crisis in a relatively strong position. Since she found a new job in Santo Domingo, she feels freer. ), conventional long form: Dominican Republicconventional short form: The Dominicanlocal long form: Republica Dominicanalocal short form: La Dominicanaformer: Santo Domingo (the capital city's name formerly applied to the entire country)etymology: the country name derives from the capital city of Santo Domingo (Saint Dominic), name: Santo Domingogeographic coordinates: 18 28 N, 69 54 Wtime difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)etymology: named after Saint Dominic de GUZMAN (1170-1221), founder of the Dominican Order, 10 regions (regiones, singular - region); Cibao Nordeste, Cibao Noroeste, Cibao Norte, Cibao Sur, El Valle, Enriquillo, Higuamo, Ozama, Valdesia, Yuma, history: many previous (38 total); latest proclaimed 13 June 2015amendments: proposed by a special session of the National Congress called the National Revisory Assembly; passage requires at least two-thirds majority approval by at least one half of those present in both houses of the Assembly; passage of amendments to constitutional articles, such as fundamental rights and guarantees, territorial composition, nationality, or the procedures for constitutional reform, also requires approval in a referendum, civil law system based on the French civil code; Criminal Procedures Code modified in 2004 to include important elements of an accusatory system, accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; accepts ICCt jurisdiction, citizenship by birth: nocitizenship by descent only: at least one parent must be a citizen of the Dominican Republicdual citizenship recognized: yesresidency requirement for naturalization: 2 years, 18 years of age; universal and compulsory; married persons regardless of age can vote; note - members of the armed forces and national police by law cannot vote, chief of state: President Luis Rodolfo ABINADER Corona (since 16 August 2020); Vice President Raquel PENA de Antuna (since 16 August 2020); note - the president is both chief of state and head of governmenthead of government: President Luis Rodolfo ABINADER Corona (since 16 August 2020); Vice President Raquel PENA de Antuna (since 16 August 2020); note - the president is both chief of state and head of governmentcabinet: Cabinet nominated by the presidentelections/appointments: president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by absolute vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 4-year term (eligible for a maximum of two consecutive terms); election last held on 5 July 2020 (next to be held in 2024); note - the 2020 election was rescheduled from 17 May to 5 July 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemicelection results: 2020: Luis Rodolfo ABINADER Corona elected president in first round; percent of vote - Luis Rodolfo ABINADER Corona (PRM) 52.5%, Gonzalo CASTILLO Terrero (PLD) 37.5%, Leonel Antonio FERNANDEZ Reyna (FP) 8.9% other 1.1%2016: Danilo MEDINA Sanchez reelected president; percent of vote - Danilo MEDINA Sanchez (PLD) 61.7%, Luis Rodolfo ABINADER Corona (PRM) 35%, other 3.3%; Margarita CEDENO DE FERNANDEZ (PLD) reelected vice president, description: bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of:Senate or Senado (32 seats; 26 members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote, and 6 members indirectly elected based upon province-wide party plurality votes for its candidates to the Chamber of Deputies; all members serve 4-year terms; note - in 2019, the Central Election Commission changed the electoral system for seats in26 constituencies to direct simple majority but retained indirect election for the remaining 6 constituencies; previously all 32 members were indirectly elected; the change had been challenged by the ruling and opposition parties)House of Representatives or Camara de Diputados (190 seats; 178 members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by closed party-list proportional representation vote using the D'Hondt method, 5 members in a nationwide constituency and 7 diaspora members directly elected by simple majority vote; members serve 4-year terms)elections: Senate - last held on 5 July 2020 (next to be held 2024)House of Representatives - last held on 5 July 2020 (next to be held in 2024); note - the 2020 election was rescheduled from 17 May to 5 July 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemicelection results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PRM 17, PLD 6, PRSC 6, BIS 1, DXC 1, FP 1; composition - men 28, women 4, percent of women 12.5%House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PRM 86, PLD 75, PRSC 6, PRD 4, Broad Front 3, FP 3, AP 2, APD 2, BIS 2, DXC 2, other 5; composition - men 137, women 53, percent of women 27.9%; note - total National Congress percent of women 25.7%, highest court(s): Supreme Court of Justice or Suprema Corte de Justicia (consists of a minimum of 16 magistrates); Constitutional Court or Tribunal Constitucional (consists of 13 judges); note - the Constitutional Court was established in 2010 by constitutional amendmentjudge selection and term of office: Supreme Court and Constitutional Court judges appointed by the National Council of the Judiciary comprised of the president, the leaders of both chambers of congress, the president of the Supreme Court, and a non-governing party congressional representative; Supreme Court judges appointed for 7-year terms; Constitutional Court judges appointed for 9-year termssubordinate courts: courts of appeal; courts of first instance; justices of the peace; special courts for juvenile, labor, and land cases; Contentious Administrative Court for cases filed against the government, Alliance for Democracy or APDBroad Front (Frente Amplio) [Fidel SANTANA]Country Alliance or AP [Guillermo Antonio MORENO Garcia]Dominican Liberation Party or PLD [Danilo MEDINA Snchez]Dominican Revolutionary Party or PRD [Miguel VARGAS Maldonado]Dominicans For Change or DXC [Manuel OVIEDO Estrada]Institutional Social Democratic Bloc or BISLiberal Reformist Party or PRL (formerly the Liberal Party of the Dominican Republic or PLRD)Modern Revolutionary Party or PRM [Luis ABINADER]National Progressive Front or FNP [Vinicio CASTILLO, Pelegrin CASTILLO]People's Force or FP [Leonel FERNANDEZ Reyna]Social Christian Reformist Party or PRSC [Federico Augusto "Quique" ANTUN Batile], ACP, AOSIS, BCIE, Caricom (observer), CD, CELAC, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), LAES, LAIA, MIGA, MINUSMA, NAM, OAS, OIF (observer), OPANAL, OPCW, Pacific Alliance (observer), PCA, Petrocaribe, SICA (associated member), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, Union Latina, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, chief of mission: Ambassador Sonia GUZMAN (since 18 January 2021)chancery: 1715 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008telephone: [1] (202) 332-6280FAX: [1] (202) 265-8057email address and website: embassy@drembassyusa.orghttp://drembassyusa.org/consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Glendale (CA), Mayaguez (Puerto Rico), Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Juan (Puerto Rico)consulate(s): San Francisco, chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Robert W. THOMAS (since 20 January 2021)embassy: Av. Well, our answer will be yes, since the Dominican Republic is considered one of the safest countries in the Caribbean. The citizens from a number of countries such as the United States, Canada, and a list of European countries do not need a visa. The current COVID-19 situation Data reported to WHO in the last 24 hours. Aggregate Bond Fund (AGGY) is an investment-grade . Summing up, you can see that the tourism business in the Dominican Republic is actively reviving. There are three vaccines approved for use in the Dominican Republic, which are Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, and CoronaVac. )subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 83 (2020 est. IMF projects Dominican Republics economy to grow 4.5%. CURRENT MEASURES BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC As of February 16, 2022, all restrictive measures imposed by COVID-19 are suspended, and it will be up to each individual to take his or her own measures to safeguard his or her health, responsibly, but without restrictions. Also, all tourism workers in hotels must be vaccinated. IQommunity Networking Enterprises S.R.L. (approximately $1.33 billion), information varies; approximately 60,000 active personnel (30,000 Army; 13,000 Navy; 17,000 Air Force); approximately 30,000 National Police (2022), the military is lightly armed with an inventory consisting mostly of older US equipment with limited quantities of material from other countries (2022), 17-21 years of age for voluntary military service (men and women); recruits must have completed primary school and be Dominican Republic citizens (2022)note: as of 2021, women made up approximately 20% of the active duty military, the military is primarily focused on countering illegal immigration and refugees along its 350-kilometer-long border with Haiti and interdicting air and maritime narcotics trafficking, as well as disaster relief (2022), Haitian migrants cross the porous border into the Dominican Republic to find work; illegal migrants from the Dominican Republic cross the Mona Passage each year to Puerto Rico to find better work, refugees (country of origin): 115,283 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum or have received alternative legal stay) (2021)stateless persons: 133,770 (2016); note - a September 2013 Constitutional Court ruling revoked the citizenship of those born after 1929 to immigrants without proper documentation, even though the constitution at the time automatically granted citizenship to children born in the Dominican Republic and the 2010 constitution provides that constitutional provisions cannot be applied retroactively; the decision overwhelmingly affected people of Haitian descent whose relatives had come to the Dominican Republic since the 1890s as a cheap source of labor for sugar plantations; a May 2014 law passed by the Dominican Congress regularizes the status of those with birth certificates but will require those without them to prove they were born in the Dominican Republic and to apply for naturalization; the government has issued documents to thousands of individuals who may claim citizenship under this law, but no official estimate has been released, a major transshipment point for cocaine transiting through the Caribbean, total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030, Children under the age of 5 years underweight, School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education), International law organization participation, Gini Index coefficient - distribution of family income, Household income or consumption by percentage share, Civil aircraft registration country code prefix, Military and security service personnel strengths, Military equipment inventories and acquisitions, Refugees and internally displaced persons, Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI). ), salt water lake(s): Lago de Enriquillo - 500 sq km, coastal development is significant, especially in the southern coastal plains and the Cibao Valley, where population density is highest; smaller population clusters exist in the interior mountains (Cordillera Central), lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and subject to severe storms from June to October; occasional flooding; periodic droughts, shares island of Hispaniola with Haiti (eastern two-thirds makes up the Dominican Republic, western one-third is Haiti); the second largest country in the Antilles (after Cuba); geographically diverse with the Caribbean's tallest mountain, Pico Duarte, and lowest elevation and largest lake, Lago Enriquillo, mixed 70.4% (Mestizo/Indio 58%, Mulatto 12.4%), Black 15.8%, White 13.5%, other 0.3% (2014 est.