Cuba: Knowing how to prepare for the most adverse scenarios, knowing in detail, from each territory, what material and human resources are available to face COVID-19, was the essential concept that set the tone, this Monday, at the meeting of the Temporary Working Group for the Prevention and Control of the new coronavirus, Prensa Latina publishes.
The meeting took place in the Palace of the Revolution, which was attended by the Commander of the Revolution and Deputy Prime Minister, Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, with the President of the National Assembly of People’s Power, Esteban Lazo Hernández, and was led by the Deputy Prime Minister Minister, Roberto Morales Ojeda.
The latter insisted on the need to continue keeping with precision the numbers of confirmed and suspected cases, the number of intensive therapies and isolation centers that are available, as well as the total number of workers who take health services from the health areas, part in this battle for life.
It is a disease, as Morales Ojeda meditated, whose transmission speed is very high, so it is necessary to know, from each territory, how many beds are available, or who are, as precisely as possible, the members of the chains of contagion.
The immediacy as a premise in the confrontation with the pandemic was also highlighted by the Deputy Prime Minister, who recalled that it has made possible the good results of the medical protocols in the largest of the Antilles.
The battle will continue to be difficult. The news is not good in a world where, as reported at the meeting by the Minister of Public Health, José Angel Portal Miranda, the figures continue to grow: until January 17, 189 countries with COVID-19 cases were reported, the confirmed cases amount to more than 95,400,000, assets to more than 21,800,000, and the deceased already exceed two million.
In Cuba, as detailed by the Minister of Health, until January 17, 18,443 confirmed cases were reported, of which 17,750 are Cubans, and 693 are foreigners. 4,439 remained active, and 173 deaths were accumulated for a fatality of 0.94 percent.
He also pointed out that the provinces that have the highest incidence rate of positive cases of the new coronavirus in the last 15 days are Guantánamo, Matanzas, Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Ciego de Ávila, Villa Clara and Cienfuegos.
Through videoconference that allowed the exchange with authorities of provinces in which the epidemiological situation is complex, it was learned that in Guantánamo efforts are concentrated in guaranteeing the largest number of available beds, as well as greater agility in obtaining information from PCR samples.
The province of Matanzas has also been expanding its capabilities in the face of the pandemic. In Mayabeque, where the number of confirmed cases has risen, one of the priorities is to determine in detail the sources of infection. And in Holguín, where in the last 15 days there has been a decrease in the number of confirmed cases, containing the spread is sighted, if we continue working with rigor, as a near possibility.