Cuba fights to keep the pandemic at bay

Although the death toll remained at 128, last week closed with 369 new infections, 23 more than in the previous seven days, although 26 of them are imported, some cases of foreigners living on the island.

The most complex situation remains in the province of Pinar del Rio, in the extreme west of the island, where 221 infected appeared, almost two thirds of those reported in the country.

This territory has an incidence rate of 59.0 confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the worst epidemiological scenario in the country with four active local transmission events, which forced the authorities to close the boundaries of the province.

The governor of Pinar del Río, Rubén Ramos, reported the strengthening of hygienic-sanitary measures in the 11 municipalities of the territory, declared in epidemic stage, in its phase of limited autochthonous transmission.

The westernmost province of Cuba is followed in epidemiological complexity by Sancti Spíritus, in the center, where 49 new infections were detected and three local transmission events remain open. The governor of the province, Teresita Romero, considered that with the exception of the main municipality and Cabaiguán, in the rest of the province there is control over the disease.

Also in the center of the island, the province of Ciego de Ávila tries to control an outbreak of the disease, although in the last seven days it reported 46 new cases. Its governor, Tomás Alexis Martín, explained that two local transmission events and three focus controls remain active.

Much better is the situation in Havana, which for several months was the epicenter of the disease in the country, but now seems to be heading towards control of the pandemic, reporting only 11 cases in the last seven days.

The governor of Havana, Reinaldo García, pointed out that even though the province has no active local transmission event, four outbreak controls remain open, three in the municipality of Centro Habana and one in Cotorro.

For his part, the Director of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health, Francisco Durán, publicly acknowledged the favorable evolution that Havana has achieved and considers that with the fulfillment of the required indicators, the next step to the stage of the “new normal”.

“We must recognize the work that the capital has done. Although social distancing is not yet fulfilled as it should be, it is very difficult to see someone without a face mask on the street,” said Durán, referring to the mandatory use of masks.

After several months under strict sanitary measures, including a month with a night curfew, the city is about to move from phase 3 to the reopening that governs most of the island.

In addition to what is happening in Havana, Pinar del Río, Sancti Spíritus and Ciego de Ávila remain in the phase of “limited autochthonous transmission” with movement restrictions, while the rest of the 15 provinces and the Special Municipality of the Isle of Youth.

Since the disease appeared in Cuba seven and a half months ago, the country has accumulated 128 deaths and 6,935 infected, with two evacuees, 516 hospitalized and 6,289 recovered.