Diaz-Canel Calls For Extreme Measures in the Face of the Covid Increase in Cuba

The usual crowds that gather in Cuba favor contagion, on the rise in recent days. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 30 March 2022 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called for extreme sanitary measures to prevent a new wave of COVID-19 infections despite the progress of the massive immunization campaign, the official press reported on Tuesday.

According to the official Granma newspaper, during their weekly meeting with Díaz-Canel, scientists advising the government predicted a progressive increase in confirmed cases and hospitalizations.

The Island has recorded between 600 and nearly 1,000 new daily cases in recent days, after they stabilized at around 500 at the beginning of the month, but far from the figures of the highest part of the last great wave in July and August of last year, when infections reached 9,000 per day.

Cuba has accumulated a week without deaths related to the disease during the month of March.

These results, the scientists pointed out, are due in part to the coverage of the immunization campaign with the three vaccines produced and developed in the country.

Nearly 10 million people, of the 11.2 million inhabitants of the Island, have received the complete immunization schedule with local vaccines. This is 95% of the vaccine-eligible population. In addition, 6.2 million Cubans have received the booster dose.

However, cases have been increasing in recent days and experts attribute this situation to the relaxation of precautions among citizens.

In this sense, the experts warned that “the provinces of Sancti Spíritus and Ciego de Ávila have remained the epicenter of the epidemic this year.”

Following the latest epidemiological reports, the authorities have sent teams of specialists to the most affected territories to assess the situation in order to avoid new strains on the health system.

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