The transfer of COVID-19 confirmed cases of this eastern Cuban province from Holguín and their care at the Guillermo Domínguez hospital, in the city of Puerto Padre, will be carried out in compliance with all biosecurity measures for patients and medical personnel, assured the Public Health authorities of this municipality.

Dr. Yaumara Infante, director of Health in Puerto Padre, explained on Tuesday that the decision was made based on the complex situation in Holguín, a territory where the seven cases that until April 13 are registered by Las Tunas have been treated. The neighboring province has already raised the number of people with the SARS-CoV-2 virus to 58; nine of its municipalities are affected; and it already has two limited local transmission events, in Gibara and Banes.

IT WILL BE AN ORDERLY PROCESS

Precisely, Infante affirmed, because the Ernesto Guevara General Teaching Hospital, in the provincial capital, has more capabilities to attend a significant number of patients of the Maternal and Child Program, Hemodialysis, some cases of Oncology and other services, it was decided that it would be the "Guillermo Domínguez", the second most important hospital facility in the territory of Las Tunas, which is preparing to receive those who test positive for the new coronavirus.

"Since the decision was made, both the hospital and health management team in Puerto Padre have spent long hours evaluating all the elements and steps necessary to create security conditions," she said.

The process, she added, includes the internal reorganization of the wards with the separation of the area dedicated to COVID-19 and, within this, the so-called red zone, where the patients will be, according to their specific clinical condition, and the staff in their charge. Patients of pediatric age are included, she said. "A team of experts works so that all necessary measures are taken to guarantee the security," she stressed.

The municipal director of Health in the so-called Blue Village also noted that those who will work in the red zone, both medical personnel, as well as nursing and service personnel, will remain 14 days uninterruptedly within the defined areas with its adequate work-rest regime. "They will not be entering and leaving the institution," she stressed. Later, that first team will be relieved and, complying with the protocols, will go into a period of isolation for two more weeks.

ADDITIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL STEPS

Dr. Yaumara Infante commented that a reordering of the services that are currently provided at the Guillermo Domínguez hospital will occur. Thus, she anticipated, the emergency consultations of Surgery, Traumatology, Internal Medicine, and probably those of Ophthalmology and Otorhinolaryngology, will be transferred to the Romárico Oro polyclinic, also in the city of Puerto Padre. It will be there where it is determined which cases should be referred for admission or not in hospital facilities.

She emphasized that two operating rooms will be maintained ready for extreme emergencies so that they will only be used when it is impossible to send them to the provincial capital. "Minute by minute we are thinking about everything," she concluded.

The Provincial Defense Council announced on Monday that the territory would assume the hospitalization of its COVID-19 positive cases; a few days after a study by experts from the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing at the University of Havana estimated that the peak of people infected with the new coronavirus in Cuba would occur in the middle of next May.