14ymedio, Havana, 5 August 2021 — The authorities continue to mobilize resources towards Ciego de Ávila, which already has an incidence rate of 2,700 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants, which is classified as extreme risk by the World Health Organization. This Wednesday, the authorities reported the conversion of the Ciego de Ávila Hotel, a modest three-star establishment in the center of the city, into a pediatric hospital to accommodate cases of mild infections.
With the centralization of children in the hotel, the Camilo Cienfuegos military school, where children were previously isolated, will take in sick adults, and the Las Cañas motel makes 53 beds available to pregnant women under 25 weeks.
The Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, added that an attempt is being made to transfer most of the sick to “assistance centers” because, although home isolation is within the protocol, the situation requires putting an end to contagion between cohabiting people. In addition, the measure aims to bring the sick closer to hospitals, since a delay in care can be lethal. The ambulance shortage has been emerging for weeks as a serious problem for coronavirus patients.
According to the official press, ambulances have been sent to Ciego de Ávila from other provinces of the island and the authorities have authorized 100 pedicabs to provide different services in the different health areas of the municipality and the Antonio Luaces Iraola provincial hospital.
The center has also been forced to reorganize itself to obtain 185 new beds that will be installed in areas such as the reception area, the ophthalmological center and the blocks of internal medicine and pediatrics.
The aid that has arrived from China joings that mobilized from within Cuba, which has been forced to relocate a multitude of resources in this province. Ciego de Ávila is going to receive, according to the authorities, 400 beds with their mattresses and a reinforcement of healthcare workers to cover isolation centers, an increase in consultations for respiratory infections, and a reopening of primary care areas that have had to be closed.
About twenty Cuban doctors who were providing services in Venezuela arrived at Jardines del Rey International Airport on Tuesday to provide services in the province and another 200 arrived on Wednesday.
Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, Deputy Prime Minister, announced that the 134 beds set up at the University of Medical Sciences can be doubled to “guarantee the necessary conditions and eradicate organizational difficulties.”
Ciro Ugarte, director of Health Emergencies of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), warned this Wednesday of the current severity of the pandemic on the Island. “This is due to the Delta variant, which has been reported by the authorities in several places in the country, “he warned. The official stressed that the economic situation, the lines Cubans must wait in to shop for necessities and the “exhaustion of the population regarding the measures that have been adopted to protect them,” affect the worsening.
Of the 98 deaths reported this Wednesday, the highest number since the pandemic began, 23 occurred in Ciego de Ávila, well ahead of Havana (with 11), which has four times the population.
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