Cuban authorities insist on COVID -19 confrontation. Photo/ Estudios Revolucion.

HAVANA, Cuba. – The Cuban Government reiterated its position to maintain the measures applied in the country against COVID-19 and not to let its guard down in the face of the epidemic, even with the tendency to decrease in the number of confirmed per day, 6 on Monday, and in the number of active patients, 159 out of 1,947 since the disease reached the island.

At the first meeting this week of the temporary working group for the prevention and control of the new coronavirus — always headed by the President of the Republic, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez—, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz highlighted that “the population must continue to be persuaded not to generate a state of overconfidence and to continue implementing measures.”

At the same time, Marrero added, we must take extreme care, especially now with rains, to avoid the proliferation of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito and that the epidemiological situation in the nation don´t get complicated.

In the daily meeting through videoconference from the Palace of the Revolution, Marrero Cruz pointed out as a priority “the production of food and also the battle against speculators and price increases, which are aspects that repeatedly raised by the population.”

“We must continue to fight strongly any negative attitude that harms the well-being of the people,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

In his regular update to the country’s leadership on the epidemic, Public Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda explained that in Cuba 2,068 people remain admitted for care and surveillance of COVID-19, a figure including those who are in hospitals, in centers for suspects and institutions aimed at isolation. That number, the Minister explained, is the lowest since April 22, when there were more than 10,700 in those categories.

96.8% of patients diagnosed with the disease who are still admitted have a stable clinical evolution; there are 82 deaths, none on Monday; and 15 medical discharges were awarded, reporting 1,704 recovered patients.

About the local transmission events Dr. Portal Miranda reported that 34 have been completed and 10 remain, after closing in the last hours that of La Ceiba community, at Guane municipality in Pinar del Rio; and that of Latinoamericano, in the capital municipality of Cerro. Of the dozen open events, only the one in Centro Habana reported cases on Monday.

The Public Health Minister indicated that in the last fortnight, the highest rates of incidence of positive cases to COVID-19 per 100 thousand inhabitants are maintained in Matanzas and Havana. On the contrary, the Island of Youth and eight provinces do not report any infected in that same period of time: Sancti Spiritus, Artemisa, Granma, Mayabeque, Holguin, Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantanamo.

Given the course the epidemic has been taking place in the Cuban archipelago, the authorities of Havana, Villa Clara and Matanzas render an account at the meeting. They are the three provinces with the highest number of confirmed cases in the country: 942, 216 and 191, respectively.

Havana Governor Reinaldo Garcia Zapata explained that 205 people are admitted in the territory, of which 84 confirmed with the new coronavirus and 121 suspects. The hospital occupancy rate is 18% and the intensive care rate is 3%, the lowest recorded.

The official commented that from a comprehensive assessment of the epidemic in Havana, presented by a group of experts, it was decided to continue the case survey in the most difficult places. “We are insisting not to be complacent,” Garcia Zapata said, “we must go to the search for the sick, so we have defined the places where we have to continue deepening.”

Regarding Matanzas, Governor Mario Sabines Lorenzo specified about the sensitive transmission event occurred at the Comandante Faustino Perez Provincial Hospital, where the epidemiological study concluded with 59 cases in total, 3 of them are already medical discharges.

This prestigious institution has taken all measures to overcome the deficiencies identified and, according to Sabines Lorenzo, “an adequate working environment, cleanliness, order and a commitment of workers are appreciated; we think this issue is going to be left behind and we think we’re coming to the end.”

Other good news came from Villa Clara, a province that in the last fortnight has reported only four positive cases of COVID-19. Of the total number of infected in the territory, 92.1% are recovered; and the two open transmission events that of the Nursing Home and the one at the Polygraphic, do not report new cases in more than two weeks. All the patients involved are medically discharged.

“This is Villa Clara’s best moment,” Governor Alberto Lopez Diaz concluded, “with the best results since we started the pandemic confrontation.”

Taken from Presidency of Cuba site