The study to detect positive cases of the new coronavirus in apparently healthy people who are not contacts of patients or suspects has already started in Camagüey.
The director of the Provincial Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology in that province, Dr. Juan Llambías Peláez, said that “the study foresees the taking of a nasopharyngeal sample to know in real time the progress of COVID-19 with tests known as PCR, which detect the new coronavirus before the disease manifests itself.”
Families in predetermined areas in the municipalities of Najasa, Jimaguayú, Florida, Minas and Camagüey, are voluntarily submitting to the test, which is carried out by taking samples every 21 days. The study will detect positive cases of the new coronavirus. Many of the patients in the province are asymptomatic.
The lack of symptoms that warn of the possibility of contagion constitutes an element that tends to minimize the perception of risk in the population, Dr. Llambías said.
“We insist on individual responsibility because we have noticed a certain tendency to consider that the situation is resolved; but, moreover, no one can do more for our health than ourselves. All preventive measures are maintained with frequent hand washing with soap and water, the use of hypochlorite or alcohol, the facemask and social isolation. We can do a lot from our own home. Avoid parties, unnecessary outings, crowding in lines and keep the distance between people. Regardless of the favorable situation in the country, the risk remains because many of the asymptomatic people, who can make us sick, are on the streets, not in hospitals,” he said.
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And he added: “Many people understand the need to comply with the health authorities’ guidelines and the decisions of the government in each locality; however, being on the street unjustifiably, and not doing what is ours to do individually, can cause the disease to become uncontrolled. Word is underway in Camagüey, but there are many irresponsible people; every day we have to take care of ourselves because many people, before feeling the symptoms, are already transmitting the disease. To avoid this new danger, we must increase the perception of risk because we don’t know whether we are in contact with an individual on the street who is a carrier of the virus; so the call is to stay at home.”
