Although the Cuban Ministry of Public Health has not reported any deaths from covid on the island for six days and the new daily positives in the last week are between 60 and 70, the health authorities of Havana propose the internment in isolation centers of all patients with symptoms that test positive for antigens.
According to the local official press, the director of the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology, Yadira Olivera Nodarse, based the new measure on “avoiding a setback in the confrontation” with the pandemic due to the “increase in social mobility” and the “arrival of travelers in the final days of the year”.
Until these statements, the protocol was for these patients to isolate themselves in their own homes. Now, those who present suspicious symptoms will undergo a PCR, but always after being admitted, and, if they are negative, they will be discharged, although they will be “closely monitored in the following days by the staff of the medical offices” authorities said.
They base the new measure on “avoiding a setback in the confrontation” with the pandemic due to the “increase in social mobility” and the “arrival of travelers”
Direct contacts will also be isolated for 14 days, they will be in their homes, and two antigen tests will be applied, the second of them on the fifth day of the first. If during this quarantine any contact appears symptomatic, they will be admitted to a care center “immediately”.
Regarding travelers diagnosed with omicron variant, who arrived from Kenya on December 13, reported that they are isolated and that a “focus control” was carried out in the rental house in Centro Habana where they were staying. The people with whom they had contact, Olivera said, tested negative for the first PCR that was applied to them.
The total number of deaths, according to the latest official report, remains on the island at 8,313 and total infections total 963,958 since the first patient, diagnosed in March of last year.
Currently, 329 people are confirmed with the virus in Cuba, of which 8 are serious and 4 are critical.
The eastern province of Holguín reported the highest number of infections this Friday, with 14.
The Government assures that more than 9 million people – out of a population of 11.2 million – have completed the complete vaccination schedule against the coronavirus with some of the preparations of Cuban origin: Abdala, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus, whose use of emergency has not been approved by the World Health Organization and they have no published results in scientific journals (peer reviewed).
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