Cuba prepares for spike in COVID cases

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 20 (ACN) The provision of more than five thousand beds in isolation centers is among the measures adopted by the authorities of Havana to face the new outbreak of COVID-19, it was informed this Tuesday in the meeting of the Temporary Working Group of the Government for the Prevention and Control of the Pandemic.

To the increase of capacities to attend in a differentiated way to symptomatic, non-symptomatic and suspicious patients, it is added the enlistment of facilities of the Ministry of Tourism to facilitate the quarantine of medical personnel working in the red area.

The meeting was headed by the Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, José Ramón Machado Ventura, and the Vice President of the Republic, Salvador Valdés Mesa. Led by Vice Prime Minister Roberto Morales Ojeda, it was also attended by the Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, among other Vice Premiers.

In the meeting, where a critical analysis of the epidemiological situation in several provinces was carried out, the Guantanamo authorities also reported that in the last 15 days 801 cases have been reported, for a rate of 158.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in the nation.

Dr. José Ángel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health, summarized that since the beginning of the pandemic, 18,773 cases have been confirmed, of which 18,075 are Cuban and 698 are foreign. There are 175 deaths, for a lethality of 0.93 percent.

The data refers to 15,044 confirmed indigenous cases of COVID-19, with an incidence rate of 134.3 per 100,000 inhabitants (not including the 3,729 imported cases). In the last 15 days, 5,405 cases were confirmed, for a rate of 48.25.

In the next days, Cuba must face an increase in the confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the three possible scenarios (high, medium or low), so the epidemiological work must be reinforced for one as well as for others.