Medical Sciences students return to active screening

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, Jan 26 (ACN) With this province’s return to the limited autochthonous COVID-19 contagion phase, over 4,000 medical students have rejoined the active screening effort to detect symptoms associated with the pandemic.

The participation of future doctors is concentrated in the first five academic years to respect the senior medical students’ incorporation to local hospitals.

Kia Lang Yi, a fifth-year student, told ACN that they screen in the morning and study in the afternoon with online evaluation guides prepared by the teachers.

We also have groups in WhatsApp where we get the subjects and we have weekly a meeting with teachers, always respecting the health measures imposed by the epidemic, he said. We never enter people’s homes, and always carry a hydroalcoholic solution to disinfect our hands and wear face masks. We use an epidemiological survey to ask how many people live in the house, if there are senior citizens, whether they have anyone arrived from abroad, and whether anyone is showing febrile or respiratory symptoms. In the latter case, we take the patient name and ID card number and report them to the doctor's office and from there to the polyclinic.

The students were assigned to areas close to their homes. They work in pairs, and there is a university professor for every 20 students who is in charge of controlling and supervising the visits.