Cuban President Insists on Discipline to Fight COVID-19

Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel considered that “to the extent that we all understand the responsibility that each of us has with others; we will face more efficiently the pandemic of the new coronavirus”.

When leading along with Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, the meeting that daily evaluates from the Government the situation on the Caribbean island with the COVID-19 and the Plan for its prevention and control, the Head of State appreciated that in this battle “every one depends on everyone and we all depend on each other ”.

He insisted that children and young people cannot remain on the streets. “Young people may be healthy, but if they carry the disease they are risking the lives of their parents and grandparents, so it is a social responsibility. This is not the time to recreate ourselves in the way we did, we are not in a normal condition of life, “he said.

The president referred to all those who have been most aware of this dangerous disease, who continue to insist on social media about the need to comply with the measures with discipline and responsibility.

Diaz-Canel highlighted the majority support of the Cuban people for the measures adopted and the recognition of the health personnel who work in Cuba and the medical brigades that are leaving for various countries of the world to help.

He also referred to the concern that some pre-university students have with the university admission tests and assured that they will be carried out, because the quality of admission to Higher Education cannot be affected, but the date will depend on how the situation evolves with COVID-19.

The Head of State finally noted that each provincial government make telephone numbers available to the people to denounce irregularities they observe in the streets.

As usual in these daily check-up meetings, the Minister of Public Health, Jose Angel Portal, presented an update on COVID-19 in Cuba, where so far 67 cases had been confirmed. In addition, 1,539 patients are admitted for epidemiological surveillance, 1,423 of them are Cubans and 116 foreigners; at the same time and in permanent follow-up by the Primary Health Care, there are other 36,056 persons.

The minister also reported that 4.782,231 people were investigated in Cuba, among them 521,364 elderly, which as it has seen is the most vulnerable age group against the new coronavirus.

Portal added that so far 63 isolation centers have been set up for Cuban travelers residing in the country, with capacity of 9,824 beds. Since the move to quarantine the travelers began, the number has risen to 1,146, while 24 of them have been identified with respiratory symptoms and have been sent to hospitals.

He also pointed out that there is presence of medical collaboration in 51 countries that currently have transmission, but so far no incidents have been reported with the Cuban doctors. On the other hand, two brigades of the Henry Reeve international contingent left yesterday: one to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the other to Antigua and Barbuda.

From the international context, he specified that the disease is already in 171 countries, with 416,916 confirmed cases and 18,565 deaths, for a lethality of 4.45%. In the Americas region 34 countries and 11 overseas territories are affected, the highest numbers of infested patients are in the United States (55,231), Brazil (2,201), Canada (1,959) and Ecuador (1,082).

It was also highlighted in the meeting the work carried out by the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) in the communities, as an essential factor in the battle that the country has undertaken to stop the COVID-19 pandemic.

Likewise, the creative women’s movement has joined the elaboration of respiratory masks; FMC members have been chosen to buy the drugs for the elderly; and families are being advised so that children and young people remain at home as part of social isolation.

All these experiences, Diaz-Canel added, must be widely spread throughout the country to intensify work at community level, in houses where there are people in quarantine or under epidemiological surveillance, in support of older people and the most vulnerable ones and in reports of any irregularity in the neighborhoods. “That will give us a more systematic and efficient work in confronting the new coronavirus.”