The Temporary Group of the Government in this eastern Cuban province for the confrontation of the COVID-19 agreed to reestablish sanitary controls in the borders with several neighboring territories with higher levels of transmission of the new coronavirus, as well as between the municipalities of Las Tunas and Puerto Padre that right now concentrate most of the positive cases here.
Las Tunas, Cuba.– As of this week, the passenger screening points will be operational at the entrances from the province of Camagüey, both on the central highway and on the road that connects it through the municipality of Manatí. Epidemiological surveillance activity will also return on the highway that links the Balcón del Oriente Cuba (Balcony of Eastern Cuba) with the province of Granma.
At the same time, the authorities in Las Tunas take other preventive measures such as increasing the hospital capacities of positive cases for SARS CoV-2 and of suspected patients of low complexity. Other approved steps involve classifying national travelers from territories with transmission with symptoms as suspects and acting according to the established protocols, which implies their home entry.
The Government also reiterated the full validity of the measures agreed on last week that reinforced epidemiological surveillance, especially in the municipalities of Las Tunas and Puerto Padre. Since this Monday, the limitation of mass transport of people between both demarcations came into force, and it is only to essential workers and to those with fully justified health reasons. At the same time, other regulations are in force to suppress non-essential services that promote the agglomeration of people.
Additionally, at the end of this week, the services of grandparents' homes and nursing homes will be suspended in those municipalities.
The Temporary Group clarified that the pertinent coordinations are made to guarantee the assortment of essential products to city blocks whose residents have limited movement as part of the outbreak control actions around the detected positive cases.
The agreed strategy includes promoting the decentralized distribution of goods in the neighborhoods. Likewise, the transfer of cancer patients who must undergo radio or chemotherapy treatments in hospitals in the cities of Camagüey or Holguín will be ensured.
Manuel René Pérez Gallego, first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party in the province, insisted that productive activities or basic services cannot be stopped; therefore, he said, the administrations should take the necessary precautions so that no economic activity stops if one of several workers must remain isolated because they have been in contact with a positive case. The Party leader stressed the rigor that must be assumed in compliance with the agreed health guidelines. Above all, he insisted on the obligatory use of the facemask.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 and until last January 17, the province accumulates 233 positive cases of the new coronavirus (124 imported), of which almost 85 percent have been detected in the territorial capital or in the Blue Village. In the last 15 days, 71 new cases were confirmed, of which 45 were autochthonous for an incidence rate of 8.41 per 100,000 inhabitants, mainly in the aforementioned municipal districts.
