There are 19 days of state of emergency left since the last extension made by the Executive Branch on November 30 and the same number of days at the curfew.
January 15 culminates this period arranged by President Luis Abinader, with the consent of the National Congress. This time began on December 2, with a 45-day extension for the third time in government, due to the health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Dominicans have been living under a state of emergency since March 18, when the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and Danilo Medina ruled, being updated more than seven times so far this year.
This state of emergency grants special and temporary powers to the President of the Republic to deal with an immediate threat to the country and demands an immediate response, according to the Constitution.
Curfew
Within the state of emergency, one of the preventive measures to stop the spread of the disease has been curfew, a restriction that prohibits the free movement of civilians on the street from a certain time.
The penultimate curfew imposed by the first president was by decree number 554-20 and was extended for 20 days from 2 December, ie ending on 22 December.
However, with the arrival of the Christmas holidays and the increase in positive cases for Covid-19 in some provinces, the government applied new restrictions before the set time expired.
Presidential Decree 698-20 of 15 December 2020 repealed the previous decrees numbers 504-20, 554-20 and 684-20 relating to curfew. The new timetables and measures presented in the document came into force on the day of publication.
By means of this presidential mandate a curfew different from the established one previous to the National District and the provinces of Santo Domingo, Santiago, Duarte, the Fertile valley and Puerto Plata settled down.
While for the whole country, on December 24 and 31, the curfew schedule would be from 7:00 pm to 5:00 am and free traffic until 1:00 am on the 25th of December. December and 1 January.
These measures will continue until the last state of emergency is lifted, unless some variation is provided to these regulations.