By: Yaima Puig Meneses
While Havana maintains a trend to control COVID-19, it is the provinces of Pinar del Río, Sancti Spíritus and Ciego de Ávila that are currently showing the greatest epidemiological complexity.
A total of 1,265 people were diagnosed in Cuba with COVID-19 during the month of October. This figure means 339 fewer cases than those reported in September and, consequently, a decrease in the intensity of transmission of the disease in that period, the highest levels of which were reached in the provinces of Pinar del Río, Sancti Spíritus, Havana and Ciego of Ávila.
This is how the Minister of Public Health, José Angel Portal Miranda, said during the first of the two meetings this week of the temporary working group for the prevention and control of the new coronavirus, which, as usual, was headed by the President of the Republic , Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez; the vice president, Salvador Valdés Mesa; and the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz.
Despite this reality, at no time do the alerts in Cuba fall after the purpose of containing contagions, especially when, as Portal Miranda reported later, during last week - the 34th week since the epidemic began in the country - produced an increase in the number of confirmed autochthonous cases, mainly in the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa and Ciego de Ávila.
Of the 343 patients diagnosed in the course of the last seven days, he also detailed, 91% are concentrated in Pinar del Río, Sancti Spíritus and Ciego de Ávila, provinces in which the highest rates of incidence per 100,000 inhabitants, with 73.14, 24.90 and 21.96, respectively.
When updating in a general way on the epidemiological situation at the close of the day on Monday, the Minister of Public Health specified that, with the report of 65 new patients this Tuesday, there were 7 035 people who have been confirmed with COVID-19 in the Greater Antilles since last March 11.
Of them, he pointed out, 530 remained admitted, the majority belonging to Pinar del Río; 525 had a stable clinical course, while four were in critical condition and one in serious condition.
After 56 discharges were granted during the day, he said, there were 6,374 patients recovered from the disease during the entire epidemic.
In particular about local broadcast events, Portal Miranda pointed out that of 99 that have been opened in the country, only 10 remain active: four in Pinar del Río; three in Sancti Spíritus; two in Ciego de Ávila; and one in Artemis. A total of 834 positive cases have been diagnosed in them.
With a high dispersion of cases throughout the territory, it is Pinar del Río, said the Owner, the province that currently presents the most complex epidemiological situation. Although in the months that elapsed from March to September, the territory of the province accumulated a total of 116 people infected with COVID-19, only in the month of October 438 patients were reported, a figure that shows how high the intensity of transmission is at this time of the illness.
The week that just ended, he said, is the third in a row with an increase in the incidence of cases. Two hundred and eighteen were confirmed patients in the last seven days -45 more than in the same preceding period- distributed in nine of the Pinar del Río municipalities.
From that western province, Governor Rubén Ramos Moreno noted that Mantua is the only municipality that currently does not report autochthonous cases. From the 483 patients diagnosed in October, he specified, a total of 8,337 contacts have accumulated and this Tuesday 296 people were admitted with the disease.
Taking into account the current situation in the province, he assured, the active investigation in the communities has been reinforced in order to identify the largest number of suspected cases and isolate them promptly. At the same time, he said, vigilance in neighborhoods is intensified to exercise better control over the contacts found in their homes.
Regarding Sancti Spíritus, where 335 patients with COVID-19 were diagnosed in October, the Minister of Public Health explained that favorably last week was the second in a row in which confirmed cases continued to decline.
The three new patients reported this Tuesday, said Governor Teresita Romero Rodríguez, correspond to controls of outbreaks that remain active in the capital municipality, where the main efforts are concentrated today. The three local transmission events that remain open, she assessed, show a tendency to control and amounted to between 8 and 16 days without reporting new cases.
Another of the provinces that focused the analysis of the temporal group was Ciego de Ávila, territorial
io where for the second consecutive week the incidence of cases increases. Such behavior, explained the Head of Public Health, is at the expense of the institutional transmission event that remains active in the main municipality and where 240 patients have been diagnosed.
However, he stressed that with respect to the month of September, in October there was a notable decrease in the number of confirmed, with 316 people infected.
The governor of Avila, Tomás Alexis Martín Venegas, specified that for 36 days in the province no deaths have been reported and in the last fortnight there have not been treated in hospital institutions patients in serious or critical condition due to COVID-19.
At the close of the day, he commented, there were 76 active cases, all admitted to Camagüey, a province that also accounted for during the day and where since October 29 two autochthonous cases have been diagnosed.
With 203 people confirmed with the new coronavirus during the month of October in Havana, Portal Miranda stressed, the province has managed to considerably reduce the intensity of transmission of the disease, although this does not constitute any reason to trust and stop complying with the measures hygienic-sanitary approved.
Only seven people, he acknowledged, were confirmed with the disease during the last week, the second in which the incidence of cases in the capital has decreased consecutively. The province does not have any active local transmission events and only six focus controls remain open in the municipalities of Centro Habana, Diez de Octubre, Habana del Este and Cotorro.
In the two focus controls to which the three people infected with COVID-19 reported this Tuesday correspond, said Governor Reinaldo García Zapata, the universe of population to be studied has been expanding to be sure that there is no remaining suspicious.
Only 22 people confirmed with COVID-19, he assured, were admitted, "the lowest number we have had during the epidemic in the province." Nor do we have critical or serious cases in hospital institutions.
Although this is encouraging news, which shows the control of the disease that continues to manifest itself in the Cuban capital, it does not constitute for any reason a reason to trust or dismantle any of the measures that are applied today. Risk perception continues to be vital.
As the last point on the agenda, there was an exchange with authorities of the National Civil Defense Staff about the behavior and possible trajectory of Hurricane Eta, a meteorological phenomenon on which President Díaz-Canel insisted, rigorous monitoring must be maintained.
Taken from: Presidency
