We must maximize protection of the elderly against COVID-19, Cuban expert warns

 HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 7 (ACN) The utmost care of grandparents by their families and themselves should be a priority in these days of pandemic, Francisco Duran Garcia, national director of epidemiology of the Cuban public health ministry, said today.

During the regular Monday press conference on the behavior of the current pandemic, the specialist urged to take extreme care in this age group when the present wave of contagions of the disease in the country is causing the death mainly in the over 70 years of age.
According to him, since week 50 there has been an increase in the number of deaths from the disease due to the prevalence of the omicron variant in the country.

This week 42 people died (six per day), the highest number after week 44, the specialist informed.

The most recent week shows a decrease in positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, with the detection of 10,889 confirmed cases, a high figure, but which represents 970 fewer cases than the previous week.

Regarding pediatric cases, Duran Garcia stressed that so far this year there have been no reported deaths of children due to the pandemic in the country.

However, he reiterated his call for the protection of children from zero to two years of age, a group in which the disease has a higher incidence.

The expert indicated that in the most recent week, 2,198 pediatric cases were registered in the country (314 per day), which shows a decrease with respect to previous weeks.

He explained that the provinces with the highest incidence of the disease during the week were Las Tunas (22.5), Isla de la Juventud (21), Sancti Spiritus (20.6), Holguin (19.8), Guantanamo (14.5), Cienfuegos (12.6), Granma (12.3), Camaguey (10.6), Ciego de Avila (10.5), Pinar del Rio (10), Mayabeque (9.5) and Artemisa (9.2).

Regarding the omicron variant, Duran Garcia referred that during the week 15 new cases were identified in the country, for a total of 229 (175 Cubans and 54 foreigners).

To date, and since March 2020, Cuba has registered 1,54,909 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 and 8,443 deaths due to COVID-19, compared to 1,39,139 recovered cases, a figure equivalent to 98.5 % of the contagions.