Children and young people cannot remain on the streets. Photo/ Estudios Revolucion.
HAVANA, Cuba.- The President of the Republic, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, considered this Thursday in the Palace of Revolution that to the extent that we all understand the responsibility that each of us has with the rest, we will face more efficiently the pandemic of the new coronavirus.
Leading with Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz the meeting that every afternoon assesses from the Government the situation with Covid-19 and the Plan for its prevention and control on the island, the Head of State appreciated that in this battle “each depends on everyone and all of us depend on each other”.
Diaz-Canel insisted that children and young people cannot remain on the streets. Young people may be healthy, but if they carry the disease they are risking the lives of their parents and grandparents, so it is a social responsibility. This is not the time to recreate ourselves in the way we did, we are not in a normal condition of life, he said.
The Cuban President referred to all those who have been most aware of this dangerous disease, who continue to insist on social media about the need for measures to be complied with discipline and responsibility.
Diaz-Canel highlighted the majority support of the Cuban people for the measures taken and the recognition for health personnel working in Cuba and the medical brigades that are leaving for several countries around the world to help.
The President referred to the concern that high school students have with the university admissions exams and assured that they will, because the quality of the entry to Higher Education cannot be affected, but the date will depend on how the situation evolves with Covid-19.
“The programming of TV classes is one of the ways to study. The main thing is effort and self-study. We are not talking about new content, but those that have been taught during transit through the pre-university stage and students have to do is prepare. For that there are guides, guidance for parents, type admission tests and solved exercises (…) Now there’s more time and you have to take advantage of it to study,” he said.
The Head of State finally indicated that each territorial government make telephone numbers available to the people to report the irregularities they see in the streets.
As usual in these daily review meetings, the Minister of Public Health, Jose Angel Portal Miranda, presented an update on Covid-19 in Cuba, where until this Thursday 67 cases had been confirmed. In addition, 1,539 patients are admitted for epidemiological surveillance, including 1,423 Cubans and 116 foreigners; on a par and ongoing follow-up by Primary Health Care, there are another 36,056 people.
The Minister also reported that 4 million 782 231 people were surveyed on the island yesterday, including 521,364 senior citizens, which, as has been shown to be the most vulnerable age group to the new coronavirus.
Portal Miranda added that so far 63 isolation centers have been conditioned in the provinces for Cuban travelers residing in the country, with a capacity of 9,824 beds. Since the quarantine of travelers began, the number has risen to 1,206, of which 24 have been identified with respiratory symptomatology and referred to designated hospitals.
The Public Health Minister also noted there is a presence of medical collaboration in 51 countries that now have transmission, but so far there are no incidents with Cuban doctors. On Thursday, two brigades of the Henry Reeve International Contingent left: one for St. Vincent and the Grenadines and another for Antigua and Barbuda.
About the international context, Portal Miranda specified that the disease is already present in 171 countries, with 416,916 confirmed cases and 18,565 deaths, for a lethality of 4.45%. In the Americas region, 34 countries and 11 overseas territories are affected, the highest numbers of patients are in the United States (55 231), Brazil (2 201), Canada (1 959) and Ecuador (1 082).
In the meeting the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution referred to their work in communities, as an essential factor in the battle the Island undertakes to stop Covid-19 pandemic. On the subject, Teresa Amarelles Boue, Secretary General of FMC detailed that community leaders and health brigades have visited more than 642,560 families.
Likewise, the Women Creators Movement joined the making of nasobucos. In addition, vials are collected for the sodium hypochlorite bottling; some members of FMC buy the drugs for senior citizens; and the organization talks with families so that children and young people remain at home as part of social isolation.
All these experiences, the President of the Republic added, can be deployed more broadly across the country, to intensify work at the community level, in the houses where people are quarantined or in epidemiological surveillance, in support of older people and the most vulnerable and in reports of any irregularities in the neighborhoods. “That will give us a more systematic and efficient work in the confrontation of the new coronavirus.”
Taken from www.presidencia.gob.cu