COVID-19 is affecting younger people and showing greater severity in hospitalized patients, expert says

Dr. Francisco Duran, national director of epidemiology of the Cuban ministry of public health ( MINSAP by its Spanish acronym) reported today in Havana that at the close of the last day there were 1,046 new cases of COVID-19 in Cuba and 12 deaths due to complications associated with the infection.

The MINSAP health authority pointed out that 644 deaths have already accumulated since the pandemic outbroke in Cuba in March last year and warned that this coronavirus is also affecting younger people and is showing a greater severity in the clinical picture of hospitalized patients.

Once again, Dr. Duran reiterated the danger of SARS-CoV-2 if we take into account that as the virus circulates more, it has greater possibilities of increasing the number of mutations and the new variants that are circulating both in Cuba and in the rest of the world make it more aggressive and lethal.

For this reason, the experienced epidemiologist continues insisting on the complex epidemiological situation the Caribbean island is going through and on the importance of complying with the hygienic-sanitary and protection measures in order to avoid further spread of the disease, of which 106,707 people have already been infected in Cuba.

On the last day, 160 pediatric patients were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2, and 13,582 children, young people and adolescents, including infants, have already been diagnosed, and of the total, 840 remain actively positive and 93.8% of all those diagnosed have recovered.

Among the 160 reported last day, nine are under one year of age, six of them less than six months old, for a total of 722 infants.

He also explained that of the 840 active cases, a 17-day-old baby and others of two and three months old are in serious condition, as well as a 16-year-old adolescent reported in critical condition, all of them with stable evolution.

The virus is more lethal because some strains are more virulent and cause it to evolve to severity and death, warned the expert.