Omicron Triggers Number of COVID-19 Cases and Hospitalizations in Cuba

 Havana, Jan 24 (ACN) The spread of the SARS-Cov-2 variant Omicron has increased contagion in the country with a steady increase of COVID-19 positive cases and hospitalizations over the past six weeks, said Cuban Health Minister Jose Angel Portal as he analyzed the country’s epidemiological scenario.

On his Facebook account, the minister said that last week alone some 22 thousand 919 new COVID-19 positive cases were reported on the island, a figure much higher than the 3 thousand 845 cases reported in December 2021.

The highest COVID-19 transmission levels are found in the provinces of Camaguey, Holguin, Las tunas, in the eastern part of the country, and Pinar del Rio Matanzas, Artemisa, and Mayabeque in the west, as well as south central Cienfuegos. These territories concentrate 64.7 percent of all positive cases in 2022, the minister said.

“No one must doubt that the alert on the virus threat is permanent in the country; nobody is allowed to lower the guard in any moment. Those who think that the immunity level we have reached with the vaccination campaign is enough to make the epidemic disappear are totally wrong,” said the government official.

Up to January 22, a total of nine million 801 thousand 110 Cubans had already completed their vaccination scheme, out of whom four million 770 thousand 523 were administered a booster. This is a big strength of Cuba, which makes a difference with respect to the rest of the world, but the vaccines alone cannot do the job, the minister noted.

So far, some 17 thousand 157 patients remain in hospital, with 58 of them in intensive care units.

Asimismo, resaltó que mientras mayor sea el número de contagios, mayor será también la posibilidad de enfermar y de que mueran los más vulnerables.

A total of 999 thousand 836 patients have recovered from COVID-19 in Cuba, standing for 97.5 percent of one million 022 thousand 112 persons diagnosed with the virus since the epidemic began to affect the island in March 2020.