Dr. Francisco Duran, National Director for Epidemiology at the Cuban Health Ministry
Good morning to you and to all those who tune in to watch or listen to the press briefing every morning.
As always, we will begin by updating the public on the situation, both national and international regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.
As it has happened over the past two months, the situation is ever more complex, 181 countries already report the presence of the Covid-19 disease, with yesterday’s addition to the list of Sao Tome and Principe.
Practically, one and a half million people are infected worldwide — 1 476 819– with 84 929, nearly 85 thousand more than the day before. Far from diminishing, the figure of diagnosed patients increases significantly with every passing day.
There are already 87 816 deaths, 6 338 more than the day before.
The mortality rate has also increased from 5.8% to 5.95%, and just like yesterday, 179 countries report community transmission, representing 99.4%.
We were commenting the news we heard early this morning and late last night that the United States –the world’s first economy with enough resources—has more cases than Spain, France and Germany combined, which speaks for itself of the preventive measures that should have been adopted to prevent this from happening.
In the region of the Americas, there are a total of 497 200 confirmed cases, representing 33.7% of the confirmed cases reported worldwide — also above yesterday’s figure. The Americas reports also the sad news of 17 082 deaths, representing a mortality rate of 3.4% –also above yesterday’s figure.
Regarding Cuba, yesterday we did not welcome any travelers coming from abroad, while 280 people left our country –24 foreigners– we are talking here about crew members from Angola and Colombia, and 256 Cuban residents, who also departed yesterday to fulfill missions abroad.
There are currently 12 674 people in Cuba — 5 609 of them foreigners and 7 065 Cubans, who reside abroad. There are 996 foreigners in rental homes, very similar to yesterday’s figure, mostly in the Havana municipalities of Plaza de la Revolución, Centro Habana, Playa and in eastern Santiago de Cuba province.
There are currently 1 867 people hospitalized, 150 under surveillance, 1 217 suspected cases and 496 confirmed cases. A total of 9 761 people are under strict surveillance in primary health care.
Yesterday, a total of 1 298 samples were tested for Covid-19. For the 6th consecutive day, more than 1 000 samples are analyzed in a single day. The largest number of samples were analyzed at the Tropical Medicine Institute with 443, followed in that order by Villa Clara with 265, the Laboratory of the National Civil Defense Council with 205, Santiago de Cuba with 188 and Havana with 187. Of the total of 1 298 samples analyzed yesterday, 49 tested positive for Covid-19, representing 3.8% –slightly below yesterday’s figure.
Cuba accumulates a total of 12 023 samples tested for Covid-19, 564 of which turned out positive, representing 4.7%.
All the new 49 confirmed cases are Cuban nationals, 32 were contacts of previously confirmed cases, 16 were contact of travelers coming from abroad and in one case, we’re tracing the source of the virus.
As we said yesterday, we’re not trying to hide information about what’s really happening.
Sobre los pacientes reportados como críticos y graves, el especialista explicó que estos presentan patologías asociadas, de ahí la necesidad de que estas personas se cuiden incluso aún más. Los casos presentan enfermedades como cardiopatía isquémica, hipertensión, antecedentes de neuropatía, diabetes, obesidad y fallos renales crónicos.