HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 26 (ACN) Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez shared today a warning call issued by Cuban Minister of Public Health José Ángel Portal Miranda on the serious danger posed by the Delta strain, a variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
“Delta is extraordinarily contagious,” the President wrote on Twitter, and called on everyone to cooperate with the protection and isolation measures as the vaccination program develops.
The Cuban Minister of Public Health pointed out that the main problem about Delta is its high level of contagion, 64% higher than the Alpha strain, which is in turn 40-50% more transmissible than the original Wuhan virus (a thousand times more contagious).
Portal Miranda warned that Delta is twice as transmissible as previous strains of the coronavirus and has a shorter incubation period (just four days) and a much larger number of viral particles.
Scientific evidence processed by the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) indicates that in Cuba this variant has replaced Beta, with a sustained increase since June. In the current month of August, Delta has become the prevailing strain and is being detected in all provinces.
Up to August 15, Delta was present in 92% of the samples, so it is important for people to be aware that Cuban science is not standing idly by. The laboratories are focused on searching for and establishing the presence of neutralizing antibodies of the virus in those inoculated with the vaccines Abdala and Soberana 02.