None of the 180 children diagnosed with coronavirus in Cuba have had complications, according to MINSAP

None of the 180 children diagnosed with coronavirus in Cuba have had complications, said this Saturday Dr. Francisco Durán García, national director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP).

The official stressed that of that total, 126 have been discharged. This figure is much higher than the one reported four days ago, specifically last Tuesday, May 5, when he said that of the 176 minors under 18 years of age confirmed until then, barelynine had been discharged after overcoming the disease.

"We have said other times that the clinical evolution of the child is better than in people, and generally none of the 180 children who have been confirmed in the country have had complications," he stressed.

This Saturday Durán García began his speech with the good news that no deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, which means that the number of fatalities from coronavirus in the country remains at 74.

On the other hand, the total number of infected patients rose to 1,754, afterconfirmed the presence of the virus in 13 other people. Of them, six had contact with previous cases, of another six the source of the infection is not known and the last one was infected in Mexico.

Regarding the composition of the group, it was reported that there are five men and eight women. Women with coronavirus are now 854 in the country, a figure that represents 48.7 percent of all patients reported by MINSAP, so they continue to be fewer than men, with 900 cases, for 51.3 percent.

"It should be noted that nine of yesterday's 13 positive cases were totally asymptomatic, thus accumulating 844, representing 48.1 percent of those confirmed, and who were asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis of the disease" said the expert, before recalling the importance of continuing to observe the social isolation measures decreed by the government to stop the pandemic.

Regarding pediatric patients – between zero and 18 years old – it is significant that although the provinces of Havana and Villa Clara are the ones that register the highest incidence of confirmed cases, in all the territories of the country there has been at least one.

There have even been cases of some foreign children, such as in Ciego de Ávila, where there were two children of French nationality infected, as well as another in Cienfuegos and afour-year-old American who was detected with the virus in Santiago de Cuba and was discharged on April 16.

This week a Cuban mother announced on social networks the medical discharge given to her five-year-old son in Sancti Spíritus, the first case of its kind in that province.

Regarding the subject, Dr. Durán has specified that "in general (the children) present an evolution that goes without complications, there are no serious ones and it is the population group that has a more favorable evolution. But it is a risk group that can contract the disease and that we must protect much more.

On April 24, Dr. Lissette López González, head of the national Pediatrics group of the MINSAP, explained that children under 18 years of age with coronavirus were being treated with kalestra, chloroquine and interferon, "whichhave been administered without difficulty or complications".

At that time there were 136 infected children and adolescents in Cuba.