Cuba records highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in March

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 31 (ACN) With an accumulated 24,673 positive cases to COVID-19, March is the highest figure for a month since the outbreak of the pandemic in Cuba a year ago and 100 deaths, said Dr. Francisco Duran, national director of epidemiology, today in Havana.

For more than two months in the country the most important transmission is autochthonous and in the last 15 days the highest number of such cases has been reported, for which the epidemiologist continues insisting on keeping biosecurity measures in force, taking into account that there is high transmission in all territories and in many of them the impact of the established restrictions is not evident.

This third outbreak is much higher than the two previous ones and it is enough to point out that of the 1,051 diagnosed yesterday, 96% are contacts, for a total of 69,533, Duran stressed.

Among the territories with the highest number of positive cases of the virus yesterday were Havana, with 477; Granma, 145; Pinar del Rio, 98; Matanzas, 89; Santiago de Cuba, 51, and Sancti Spiritus, 47.

Alarming is the number of infected persons in the under-20 age group, with 167 cases last day, 156 of them in the pediatric age group, including 11 infants with an average of 10 contacts each.

In response to questions from Internet users, Duran clarified that in the case of Havana, where there is still not enough capacity to isolate positive contacts, it is done at home and called to maintain the discipline of not going out or receiving visitors and there, on the fifth day, the health personnel performs the PCR.