Government meeting focusses on an increase in Covid-19 cases in on the island

The increase in the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in Cuba was the focus of Tuesday's meeting of the governmental group to confront the health emergency on the island.

At the encounter headed by the country's President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal, reported that at the close of December 12, there was an average of 86 infections per day, which represents an 80 percent increase in the intensity of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus concerning November.

According to a local television report, there was a general increase in diagnosis, both in native and imported cases. So far in December, positive patients were diagnosed in all provinces and the special municipality of the Isle of Youth.

The western provinces of Havana, Pinar del Río, Artemisa and Matanzas, the central Villa Clara province, and Santiago de Cuba, in the east, concentrate more than 70 percent of those infected in the period.

The increasing trend of people infected abroad, most travelers from the United States, is also striking, said the source.

The meeting decided to move Ciego de Avila Province to the phase known as new normality, while the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos were moved back to Phase Three.

The temporary group also analyzed a series of proposals presented by different organisms to improve the flow of passengers in the air terminals, particularly, José Martí International Airport in Havana.

Diaz-Canel called for intense work with families to rigorously fulfill the protocols of people's isolation once they arrive in the country to stop the spread of coronavirus.