The South African variant of the new coronavirus arrived in Cuba.
“An asymptomatic traveler was detected through surveillance at ports and airports …” Dr. María Guadalupe Guzmán of the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine said in an appearance on Friday. Although the case was “imported”, Guzmán did not rule out that the variant was already circulating locally.
Both Guzmán and the director of Epidemiology, Francisco Durán, denied that the regrowth of the first weeks of the year had to do with the South African variant and attributed it to the fact that the population does not comply with the health protocol.
Cuba reached 20,060 cumulative cases -530 registered on Thursday- and 188 of them dead.
Cuba, which achieved relative virus control last year with full provinces that reported no cases in more than 100 days, began a de-escalation of restrictions with the authorization in November of commercial flights for the arrival of tourists and Cubans residing abroad. The protocol included conducting tests on arrival and quarantine at passengers’ homes, but in the face of increasing cases the limitations were tightened by restricting countries of origin and requiring a negative test before boarding.
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There are currently territories that reopened their schools, traffic restrictions and the closure of some economic activities. The use of the chin and social distance are mandatory.
Duran indicated that the country with the most cases of arrival with sick COVID-19 passengers was the United States, where the Cuban emigrant community lives.
Recent variants of viruses that have emerged in the UK, South Africa and Brazil are not necessarily more lethal, Guzmán and Duran agreed, but they seem to spread more easily and scientists have said they will therefore lead to more cases. deaths and hospitalizations.
In addition, mutations in the long run could lead to a reduction in the capacity of vaccines as they are developed to date.
Cuba began this week conducting tests immunizing about 900 people – in the coming weeks it is expected to be 150.0000 – as part of the trials with its vaccine candidate Sobirana 02, created by its own laboratories.