Díaz-Canel encouraged by daily work of Cuban scientists in fight against COVID-19

 As he has done every week since the battle against COVID-19 began in Cuba, the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel, met at the Palace of the Revolution with the scientists and experts who are directly involved in confronting the epidemic in the country, a day he described as encouraging.

This meeting, he said, shows that Cuban science has been efficiently supporting the national efforts against the disease and "that it has not stopped, it has not been satisfied with the results that are already very important, but that lines of research continue to be opened; contributions and results continue to be consolidated."

"This also gives us confidence," the Cuban president said, in how we are going to overcome the pandemic and be prepared as a nation to later face other similar phenomena.

On the agenda of this session with the researchers, Doctor of Science Pedro Más Bermejo presented an analysis of the evolution of the Oxford index against active cases in countries such as Cuba, Costa Rica, Uruguay and New Zealand, which are among the best performers in the region of the Americas and in the world.  In this index, which evaluates the response of governments to the pandemic, the largest of the Antilles currently maintains a score of 100, while the other nations included in the comparison have 69.4, 66.7 and 36.1, respectively, after relaxing some of the decisions taken.

It pointed out that "accelerating the de-escalation of the measures, without strict control, meant in some of the countries studied an increase in active cases or the prolongation of the curve over time."  Among the issues that became more flexible and had an impact on the dynamics of the epidemic, he noted the relaxation of confinement, the limited openness of transport and participation in public events.

President Diaz-Canel reiterated that, when decided, measures will be taken gradually, such as the opening of workplaces, public transport and social events.  In addition, social and physical distancing will be maintained, as well as the use of nasobuco (face masks).

Raúl Guinovart Díaz, dean of the University of Havana's Mathematics and Computing Faculty, updated Cuba's disease prediction models, stressing that since the latest transmission events in Havana, "what has happened with the curve of active cases is that it remains at the limit of the favorable scenario, but threatens to move towards the middle zone, although that will happen almost at the tail end of the epidemic."