Covid: Cuba faces an upsurge in contamination cases never seen for a year
A hotel on Varadero beach, in the province of Matanzas, October 23, 2020. AFP - YAMIL LAGE
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3 min
Overwhelmed hospitals, exhausted health personnel, never since last year has Cuba experienced such a situation in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mastered and controlled so far, the coronavirus now worries the communist Caribbean island which is facing an upsurge in cases of contamination, with more than 3,500 cases daily, mainly in the tourist province of Matanzas where reinforcements had to be sent.
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With our correspondent in Havana,
Domitille Piron
10% of PCR tests result positive in Cuba, 22% for the provinces of Matanzas and Cienfuegos, these rates indicate a worrying viral circulation, according to the researcher in molecular biology Amilcar Perez Riverol: “
The Cuban data are at the same level as those of the 'India, when the country had to burn bodies in the streets.
"
The sanitary protocol which had proved its worth has been less rigorously applied lately.
The decline in the vigilance of the population added to the triumphalism around the Cuban vaccine also explains a certain relaxation.
The province of Matanzas is the most affected, hospitals are overflowing with patients, the authorities have therefore reacted.
"
All positive cases must be hospitalized, it is a challenge for this province and from the start it is necessary to apply the protocol of treatment of the patients
", declared the member of the political bureau of the party, Roberto Morales Ojeda.
Responsible Russian tourism?
The Department of Health has effectively implemented a new treatment protocol, with antigenic testing and the use of Nasalferon, an experimental nasal treatment.
Some 500 health professionals were sent as reinforcements, including military doctors and members of the internationalist brigade, usually sent abroad in disaster situations.
In Matanzas, the upsurge in cases worries and questions the population, who suspects Russian tourism in the Varadero seaside resort to be at the origin of this increase in contamination and circulation of the Delta variant.
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Read also:
Covid-19: Cuba speeds up vaccination despite the lack of syringes
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Cuba
Coronavirus
Tourism