HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 20 (ACN) Faced with the complex situation and the high transmission that continues prevailing in Cuba due to COVID-19, Dr. Francisco Duran, national director of epidemiology of the ministry of public health(MINSAP by its Spanish acronym), called today on the population not to lower the perception of the risk of this contagious disease.
Appearing at the daily press conference to update the behavior of the pandemic, Duran said that it is very important to maintain the control measures to reduce the number of positive cases, in a very complicated epidemiological scenario.
The specialist pointed out that with the analyses processed in the country this Thursday, 9,764 positive cases of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were diagnosed, with which the nation registers 564,011 infected since March of last year.
The expert explained that 9,698 were autochthonous cases, 738 more than the previous day, and 66 imported cases were also reported, including 18 foreigners.
By regions, the provinces with the highest numbers were Pinar del Rio (1,128) in the west, Cienfuegos (2,003) in the center and Santiago de Cuba (681) in the east.
As for the positivity of the samples, Dr. Duran mentioned that the country’s was 19.7%, although Pinar del Rio (55.4) and Cienfuegos (44.5) were far above that average.
In his presentation, the expert noted that since the outbreak of the pandemic, 4,397 people have died on the island as a result of COVID-19, while the lethality rate remains at 0.78, lower than that of the Americas and the world.
On vaccination, he said that 27.5% of the Cuban population has already received the three doses of the vaccine candidates and vaccines, 38.8% has a second dose and 43.6% has been administered at least a first dose.
However, the specialist assured that the percentages are still lower than what should be kept for a better control, along with the individual behavior, which is very important.
