Havana, Cuba: Increasing the perception of risk and self-responsibility behaviors, and promoting greater awareness of the severity of the clinical status and the sequel that Covid-19 leaves in convalescent patients, is an urgency given the increase in transmission of the SARS CoV-2 virus in recent weeks, Radio Reloj publishes.
The country’s leadership announced a strengthening of the measures aimed at controlling the current epidemiological situation, which includes promotion and education actions for health and concrete decisions to be adopted by the agencies and the national health system.
The measures were analyzed at the meeting on Tuesday between the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, with scientists and experts who work in science and technological innovation activities in the confrontation with the new coronavirus.
At the meeting, which was moderated by Deputy Prime Minister Roberto Morales Ojeda and in which Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman Waugh also participated, the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, presented an analysis on the current situation of the pandemic in what which goes from 2021.
He reported that as of the last week of January, the epidemic outbreak has maintained a different pattern, characterized by the diagnosis of more than 5,000 confirmed cases per week, increasing transmission in territories where it was controlled.
Among the causes that have generated the current epidemiological situation, Dr. Portal Miranda denounced deficiencies in compliance with the protocols, delays in the immediate admission of confirmed and suspected cases, and the failure to enter one hundred percent of the contacts in isolation centers. Although in Havana, due to the high incidence rates, the necessary capacities for isolating contacts have not been achieved and effective community isolation is not always guaranteed.
The current epidemiological behavior has also had an impact on the decrease in the population’s perception of risk from the time of evolution of the pandemic and the beginning of intervention studies with vaccine candidates; the gradual increase in local broadcast events; and non-compliance with the restriction measures regarding the mobility of the population between provinces and within the territories themselves.
The Minister of Minsap explained the identification in Cuba of five variants and six mutational patterns of variant 614 (a strain identified since the beginning of the pandemic in the country), with four new circulating strains (initially detected in South Africa, California – USA). . -, United Kingdom and Wuhan -China-) internationally recognized as highly contagious strains and high association with increased mortality.
We can all contribute
The measures to strengthen the confrontation with the current epidemiological situation throughout the national territory include, in domestic trade, reinforcing organizational measures in store chains aimed at avoiding crowds of people to purchase products.
For its part, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security will continue to encourage teleworking and remote work, whenever feasible. It will also take actions so that a reorganization of the jobs is applied, in order to reduce the number of workers per premises.
Measures to be reinforced by the Ministry of the Interior:
? Guarantee compliance with the closure of borders between territories in which a quarantine measure has been established due to the epidemiological situation.
? Maintain patrolling on main avenues and intensify it towards the interior of the neighborhoods to guarantee internal order and compliance with isolation measures.
? Apply strictly sanctions and fines to parents and / or guardians that allow the presence of children in the streets, non-use of the mask face and non-compliance with social distancing measures.
Measures to be reinforced by the Ministry of Transport:
? In conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior, ensure compliance with the closure of borders between territories in which a quarantine measure has been established due to the epidemiological situation.
? Adapt state transportation only to prioritized economic and social activity.
? Increase the control of internal transport to circulate, allowing the minimum necessary movement (only authorized personnel).
Measures to be reinforced by Defense Councils and mass organizations:
? Establish the quarantine and modified quarantine measure in the institutions and territories with the most complex epidemiological situation (events), guaranteeing the restriction of movements as a fundamental measure.
? Establish signage for homes and institutions where there are isolated people.
? Achieve the necessary isolation capacities in each territory for contacts of confirmed cases.
? Reinforce differentiated care for more vulnerable family nuclei, in particular people with disabilities and older adults who live alone, to avoid the violation of isolation measures, in order to satisfy first-order needs.
? Increase the action of community activists (CDR and FMC) to maintain vigilance in the fight against indiscipline that is generated in the blocks and neighborhoods.
In the measures for the control of the current epidemiological situation, the Cuban Workers? Federation (CTC) also has a leading role, which will demand, together with the administrations, compliance with the prohibition of entry of workers with respiratory symptoms to the centers work, guaranteeing their referral to health centers with immediacy.
The national health system will also apply a wide group of measures, including maintaining three Minsap teams for the supervision and control of compliance with the actions in one hundred percent of the provinces and the daily monitoring of the process and result indicators with all provinces by videoconference.
In the particular case of Havana, which presents the most complicated epidemiological situation in the country, and as President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez had announced on his Twitter account, a plan of more rigorous measures is being studied that will help contain the spread of the Covid-19.
According to Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, this set of decisions, already proposed by the government of Havana, will be reconciled with various organizations for their implementation and will be made known to the population in the next few hours.
Variants of SARS CoV-2 circulating in Cuba
In this week’s meeting of the President of the Republic with the scientists and experts working in the fight against Covid-19, Dr. C. María Guadalupe Guzmán, Director of Research, Diagnosis and Reference of the IPK, presented the Results of the study of variants of SARS CoV-2 circulating in Cuba.
The evaluation, in which more than a dozen institutions participated, details that between March and September 2020, Clade G (D614G, which replaced the original Wuhan strain in the world) predominated; However, between December 28, 2020 and March 28, 2021, five genetic variants and six mutational patterns have been detected in the country.
According to the frequency of mutational patterns per week in travelers, four variants and five mutational patterns were detected; while for autochthonous cases, a decrease in time of the D614G variant and a gradual increase in the variants reported in South Africa and California was verified. The provinces of Havana, Mayabeque and Pinar del Río show the highest number of pattern-variants.
The expert explained that the increase in the variants was initially at the expense of travelers, but little by little they have been introduced in indigenous cases.
These results indicate that, although in Cuba the variant that still predominates is the group or Clado G, other variants of SARS CoV-2, particularly the one initially reported in South Africa, show an advantage from the evolutionary point of view, potentially being able to replace to Clado G.
Dr. Guzmán added that some of these variants have spread easier and faster than the others, which may justify the occurrence of more cases of SARS CoV-2. This could be a factor that justifies the increase in the number of cases in the country in the last month, she emphasized.
Finally, she pointed out that the isolation measures and the others already known are the only ones that continue to be effective, and they must be strengthened and sustained over time.
The temporary Group for the prevention and control of COVID-19 also met during the day, which was attended by the Second Secretary of the Party, José Ramón Machado Ventura, and the Vice President of the Republic, Salvador Valdés Mesa. Vice-premiers, Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, Roberto Morales Ojeda, Inés María Chapman Waugh and Alejandro Gil Fernández also participated, as well as several ministers and ministers.