Cuba showed reduction and control of COVID-19

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 21 (ACN) During the last two weeks, a reduction and control of COVID-19 in Cuba has been appreciated, but it continues to be very risky, acknowledged today Francisco Duran Garcia, national director of epidemiology of the ministry of public health.

During the regular Monday press conference on the behavior of the current pandemic, the specialist pointed out that of the 97,032 samples studied in the last week, 4,653 were confirmed with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease.

Up to the third week of February, 18,985 SARS-CoV-2 positives were diagnosed in the country (994 per day), he said, a lower figure than that reported in January.

In this period, the number of autochthonous and imported cases decreased for the fourth consecutive week; the country registered 4,545 autochthonous cases, equivalent to 97.7 % of confirmed cases, and 108 imported cases.

Regarding pediatric cases, Duran Garcia indicated that in the most recent week 1,047 cases were registered, which shows a reduction compared to previous weeks.

The specialist recognized that although the figures are positive, they are still high, and warned about the sequelae of the disease in these patients.

According to him, since the end of the year and the first months of 2022, no pediatric deaths have been reported.

Duran Garcia lamented that 15 people died in the country during the week.

He insisted on the need to protect vulnerable groups and those with associated comorbidities, in order to avoid the loss of human lives due to the disease.

Regarding the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the expert referred that during the week 22 new cases were identified in the country, for a total of 279 (244 Cubans and 35 foreigners).

To date, and since March 2020, Cuba has accumulated 10,65,947 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2, 8,491 deaths due to COVID-19, and 1,054,266 recovered patients, a figure equivalent to 98.9% of the infections.