Cuba will open a molecular biology laboratory in Cayo Largo del Sur for greater guarantees to foreign vacationers who will stay in hotels in that tourist destination, reported the Agencia Cubana de Noticias news agency.
The director of public health on the Isla de la Juventud, Israel Velázquez, explained that the facility, with the capacity to analyze PCR tests on workers and travelers, will save time to detect people infected with COVID-19 and rule out healthy ones.
The samples are now being processed at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK), in Havana.
The microbiology and laboratory specialists who will work at the Cayo Largo facility received training in laboratory processes and biosafety protocols for a month, precisely at the IPK.
The highest ranking health authority in the special municipality explained that the new laboratory will be in operation next November, so that vacationers can enjoy a safe destination.
Cuba will expand its network of molecular biology laboratories with the construction of new facilities in the provinces of Matanzas, Holguín, Ciego de Ávila and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud.
The geographical layout of the new centers to test those suspected of being infected with COVID-19 coincide with the island’s main tourist destinations, which only had this type of facilities in Havana, Villa Clara and Santiago de Cuba.
The Cuban government established a plan to reopen international tourism operations that, in its first stage, will only allow foreign visitors to stay in hotels located in keys, a kind of bubble to avoid contagion.
