This month, Cuba has witnessed improvements in terms of COVID-19 control, although the situation remains complicated in some provinces.
Together with the strengthening of medical protocols, the progress of the large-scale vaccination campaign—almost 70% percent of Cubans have already completed their immunization schedule—-and the emphasis on the fulfillment of hygienic-sanitary measures, the fight has reached higher levels.
I admit that I gave it a lot of thought, but I finally decided to share my personal experience in this matter and I hope it will serve as a warning. No precaution is sufficient.
Some colleagues and friends hit the social networks with their very particular versions of the subject, but I made my choice days after my personal fight against the terrible SARS-CoV-2 virus, which humanity will never forget.
I am a vulnerable person because of my age, I live alone, and I suffer from asthma and high blood pressure. Aware of all this during these months of isolation, I behaved myself and followed every instruction. However, one day in September the incessant and, I would say, goddam cough suddenly started. I reinforced my own isolation until I was certain that I needed confirmation with the Antigen Test, which proved positive.
Since I told my family doctor about it, he visited me every week until my epidemiological discharge 15 days ago. I never had fever or lung sounds, but I did lose my appetite, palate and sense of smell, and I was overcome by exhaustion—both well-known symptoms—and kept coughing endlessly for 10 totally sleepless days in a row. I don’t know how many green medicine syrups I drank, but mark my words, they’re very effective.
Now I have a different tone of voice, and my body aches all over. I have chest pain sometimes, which makes me think of worse evils. And there’s this permanent fatigue that I try to “fight” little by little, and now walking as fast as I used to is out of the question, lest I become breathless and break into a suffocating sweat. Ailments of yesteryear, linked to my digestive and nervous systems, have made a comeback, and with a vengeance.
All these vividly experienced symptoms made more sense to me after the World Health Organization published the first official clinical definition of post-Covid-19 disease, where it summarized the symptoms, probable duration and other important data, in order to facilitate the treatment of convalescents.
Certainly, these days we are witnessing a gradual reduction of the pandemic nationwide, according to Dr. Francisco Duran Garcia, who insists that an improved scenario with the lowest figures in months is by no means a reason to lower our guard.
This testimony does not seek to transcend in time, but to make people understand that we must continue to take care of ourselves, especially when the new normal—still with the virus out there—opens the door to more opportunities in Cuba, because life goes on and the Cubans and their economy need as much.
