The latest update of the explosion that happened in the Saratoga Hotel in Havana city states that the death toll is 18, while 74 people were injured, according to Doctor Julio Guerra Izquierdo, head of the Department of Hospital Services of the Ministry of Public Health.

Reinaldo Garcia Zapata, governor of Havana, assured today to the Cuban News Agency that the causes of the accident that occurred Friday at the Saratoga Hotel are still being investigated and the people who may still be under the rubble are still being pulled out.

Four dead and 13 people are the preliminary toll of human damages caused by the explosion at the Saratoga Hotel this morning, informed the first secretary of the Cuban communist party in Havana, Luis Antonio Torres Iribar.

Cuba studied a total of 6,083 samples for surveillance during the day, 147 were positive, for a 2.4% positivity rate. The country accumulates 13,740,101 samples taken and 1,103,753 positive (8.0%).

Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban communist party and president of the country, highlighted today on Twitter the clinical trial designed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) in six- to 11-month-old infants.

The French government delivered on Thursday, in Havana, a donation of 18 tons of medical equipment and supplies to Cuba, in support of the plan to prevent and control the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and for the benefit of the country's health institutions.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel stressed the lowering trend of COVID-19 cases on the island by writing on his Twitter account on Wednesday that Cuba keeps the epidemic under control as new daily cases are below one hundred.

Roberto Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (PCC), highlighted today on Twitter the beginning in Cuba of the program to administer booster doses of the Cuban COVID-19 vaccine Soberana Plus to those between the ages of 12 and 18.

Children between 12 and 18 years of age in this central Cuban province are being administered a locally developed COVID-19 booster vaccine as part of the massive immunization campaign against the epidemic underway in Cuba since mid-2021.

Jorge Leon, head of the Cuban diplomatic mission to Lebanon, thanked today the donation of 87,000 syringes, 2,600 masks and 1,000 gloves, sent by friends of that nation to the island to help in the COVID-19 confrontation.

Cuba studied a total of 3,882 samples for surveillance during the day, 109 were positive for a 2.8% positivity rate. The country accumulates 13,723,630 samples taken and 1, 103,395 positive.

Cuban bio-pharmaceutical companies signed 18 accords with foreign counterparts to boost alliances in the production of drugs and equipment to improve the people’s health.

Participants at the BioHabana 2022 International Congress highlighted the effectiveness of Jusvinza in the care of severe and critical patients with COVID-19, particularly women in the third trimester of gestation, by inhibiting the hyperinflammation inherent to the systemic disease.

Unless a new strain begins to spread around the world and reaches Cuba -and it does not seem very likely, for now- and the immunity rates of the population begin to fall -and work is being done to prevent this from happening-, in the coming weeks the level of confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19 should remain stable -and with a tendency to decline-.