Cuban province turns hotels and facilities into COVID isolation centers

CIEGO DE AVILA, Cuba, Aug 4 (ACN) With the premise of using all possible spaces, the central Cuban province of Ciego de Avila is applying alternatives to increase admission capacities for patients positive for the SARS CoV-2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, and to reduce the number of those who stay at home.

Dr. José Ángel Portal Miranda, Minister of Health, explained that although the stay at home is contemplated in the protocols, the aim is to isolate in health care centers as many patients as possible to avoid the proliferation of intra-family infections and to bring them closer to the medical services, taking into account that the delay in the assistance is one of the causes of the high lethality.

For this purpose, the Ciego de Avila hotel, with 240 beds, was set up as a pediatric hospital for the care of infants at lower risk of being infected with COVID-19.

The facility will be run by Ereida Cabrera Arias, a doctor from the province of Las Tunas, a specialist in pediatrics and comprehensive care for children, and the Avila ophthalmologist Abel Denis, and will function as an extension of the Antonio Luaces Iraola Hospital, with the same guarantees in terms of medicines and protection for medical and support personnel.

At the same time, the Camilo Cienfuegos Military School, which until now received infected children, will receive low-risk adult patients and some 53 beds at the Las Cañas motel have already been set aside for the admission of pregnant women with gestation periods of less than 25 weeks.
During a tour of the national support group for the fight against the pandemic, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, it was confirmed the possibility of doubling the current capacity of 134 beds at the University of Medical Sciences, by guaranteeing the necessary conditions and eradicating organizational difficulties.

Dr. Alberto Moronta Enrique, director of the "Antonio Luaces" Hospital, said that in that institution they began to reorganize the services to achieve up to 185 new capacities, through the use of spaces such as the reception and classification area, the Ophthalmology Center, and the Internal Medicine and Pediatrics block.

Reportedly, the province should soon receive 400 beds with their mattresses, as well as another reinforcement of health professionals to ensure the necessary coverage of isolation centers, reinforce respiratory infection consultations to streamline the service and complete the primary care areas that remain closed.

In the last hours, other decisions were also adopted to facilitate the transfer of patients who require it, such as the incorporation of several ambulances to the medical emergency service and the authorization of 100 bicycle cabs to provide service in the different health areas of the municipality of Ciego de Avila and the Antonio Luaces Iraola provincial hospital.

Ciego de Avila is currently going through a peak of the pandemic which reached a record number of infections at the end of August 2, with 1,434 new cases, more than 700 active focus controls and four transmission events, while the number of active patients exceeds 3,200 and the incidence rate reaches 2,700 per 100,000 inhabitants.