Cubans Related with Italian Covid-19 Confirmed Patients are Isolated and Asymptomatic

Those people who were in contact with the three Italian tourists who were visiting the city Trinidad and who have been confirmed as the first cases of Covid-19 in Cuba, are already under epidemiological surveillance.

According to Dr. Manuel Rivero Abella, provincial health director in the territory, the seven persons who had direct contact with the tourists —the driver of the car, the tour operator and the five people living in the hostel where they were staying— are so far asymptomatic; nevertheless, they were admitted in the Dr. Faustino Perez Provincial Rehabilitation Hospital, a health facility chosen for the isolation of suspected cases in this province.

“All of them are under clinical and epidemiological surveillance to monitor possible symptoms. In case that in the next few days they have any clinical symptoms, they will undergo a nasopharyngeal test which, if confirmed, will be sent to Villa Clara Military Hospital as designed in the plan for the prevention and control of COVID-19 ”, Rivero Abella said.

The doctor also explained that if no clinical symptoms appear, they will return to their homes where they will be kept under extreme surveillance by epidemiologists and the basic health team of their respective health areas.

Of the four Italian tourists who arrived in Cuba on March 9 and went to Trinidad the next day, three were confirmed with COVID-19 and so far, according to the Ministry of Public Health, their lives face no risk.

A strategy has been designed in this province for the treatment of suspicious cases, which goes from specialized consultations in all health institutions to the availability of 42 beds for isolation.