Cuba exceeded 1,300 coronavirus infections in one day for the first time since the start of the pandemic, with the 1,383 reported this Saturday by the island’s health authorities.
This record joins the 6,864 active cases at the close of the day yesterday, another negative mark for the island, which is going through its worst epidemiological scenario since the arrival of COVID-19 in the country 14 months ago.
Now there are already 123,221 people diagnosed with the infectious disease in Cuba in this period, while the death toll is now 796 with the 11 deaths now reported by the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP). Meanwhile, 115,505 patients have already recovered, after this Friday’s 961 discharges.
May, the month that points to becoming the most disastrous of the pandemic on the island, already accumulates 15,599 infections and 142 deaths from COVID-19.
At the end of the first two weeks of this month, 26,324 people were hospitalized for the coronavirus—also record—, of which 3,983 were suspected of having the disease, 15,477 were under surveillance and, as we mentioned earlier, there were 6,864 confirmed cases.
Of the latter, 6,738 had a stable clinical condition, while 126 were in ICUs: 38 in critical condition and 88 in serious condition, according to the most recent report of the MINSAP.
As for the new cases, 1,230 are autochthonous and 153 imported, the highest number of patients arriving from abroad in recent weeks. Most of them are travelers from Russia (145), while the rest came from Spain, Venezuela, Jamaica and the United States.
Meanwhile, among the autochthonous cases 1,204 were contacts of previously confirmed cases, and 26 with no known source of infection.
Of the 1,383 new infections, 741 were females and 642 males, while more than 50% (696) were asymptomatic at the time of their diagnosis.
By age group, 489 were between 20 and 39 years old and 487 were between 40 and 59 years old, who were the most affected, while those over 60 registered a worrying total of 203. The same can be said of those under 20, which this time were 204, 187 of them in pediatric ages and 11 under one year of age. With this, this age group today reports its highest number of active cases on the island: 986.
Finally, by provinces, Havana again exceeded the 700 daily infections (784), while Santiago de Cuba (135), Camagüey (68), Artemisa (62) and Granma (51) followed as the most affected. After these data, Cuba now exhibits a rate of 140 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 15 days.
I wonder if Cuba is stressing prevention, like not smoking, diet, and supplements (unlike the US) ?