The Center for Research and Rehabilitation of Hereditary Ataxias (CIRAH) in the province of Holguin, the only one of its kind in Cuba, keeps giving priority to its patient monitoring programs despite the epidemiological problems caused by COVID-19.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said today on Twitter that science is studying the after-effects of COVID-19 in pediatric patients, and stressed that none has died in a year of pandemic, even if more than 6,300 have been infected, 270 of them in the last 48 hours. “Taking care of them is a priority,” he insisted.

A little more than a month after its opening, the Molecular Biology Laboratory in this province has processed over 12,000 PCR samples—a monthly average of 500—to detect COVID-19 cases, according to Yenisbel Valdivia Portal, director of the center and specialist in Microbiology.

The Cuban Umelisa SARS COV-2 IgG system for the diagnosis of COVID-19, culminated its evaluation and external validation process with very good results at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) and at the Research, Diagnosis and Reference Center.

In Cuba, no child or adolescent has died as a result of COVID-19. However, for almost a year, more than 6,300 have been diagnosed with the disease; only in the last 48 hours, 270 new cases in pediatric ages have been counted, according to Dr. Lissette López González, head of the National Pediatric Group, during a new meeting of the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, with scientists and experts who work in the fight against the epidemic.

Last week in Cuba was one of the three weeks with the highest number of COVID-19-positive cases diagnosed since the novel coronavirus first broke out on the island. This was informed on Monday by deputy prime minister, Roberto Morales Ojeda, during the meeting of the Temporary Working Group for the Prevention and Control of the epidemic.

Cuba broke a record in the number of PCR tests for one day with 20,578 samples analyzed in the country's laboratories, said today on Twitter the Cuban president, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez.

Cuba studied 8,274 samples for COVID 19, resulting in 1,041 positive ones. The country accumulates 2,558,296 samples taken and 57,607 positive.

The Cuban COVID-19 candidate vaccine SOBERANA-02 started phase III clinical trials Monday in the capital Havana with a population segment between 19 to 64 years of age.

Despite tireless efforts to control the latest COVID-19 flare up in the capital Havana, its spread keeps hitting the city province with reports of 362 confirmed cases on Monday, a high figure according to the Provincial Defense Council.

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 8 (ACN) Cuban minister of public health, Jose Angel Portal Miranda, said today that in the Cuban health system women represent more than 70 % of workers, and highlighted the commitment of women in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Cuba studied 20,578 samples for COVID 19, resulting in 873 positive ones. The country accumulates 2,540,022 samples taken and 56,566 positive.

Dagmar Garcia Rivera, director of research at the Finlay Institute of Vaccines, reported today on Twitter that the weather conditions in Havana did not stop the beginning of phase 3 trials of the Cuban anti-COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Soberana 02, in the early hours of Monday morning in the capital.

Cuba has 22 molecular biology laboratories, of very expensive technology, in addition to the resources used, in which the positive cases to the COVID-19 are diagnosed, despite the blockade of the United States against the island for almost six decades ago and that every day is worsening.