Cuba reports 48 new cases of coronavirus, the highest number in days

Cuba reported 48 new cases of coronavirus, the highest figure so far in May, according to data from the Ministry of Public Health of the island (MINSAP).

The island's health authority assured that this Saturday a total of 574 samples were analyzed for surveillance, of which almost 50 were positive, according to the latest part virus tracking.

The largest number of infected people were detected in three eastern provinces: Holguín (15), Santiago de Cuba (5) and Las Tunas (5).

Of the total new positive cases, 28 were contacts of confirmed cases; one with a source of infection abroad, 19 without a specified source of infection. Of these, 20 are male and 28 are female. None of these infections were reported as asymptomatic.

Since 2020, the country has accumulated 14,357,551 sample analyses, of which 1,113,878 were positive.

Currently, of the total positive cases detected in the country, 128 are hospitalized and, except for one patient, almost all have a stable clinical evolution 127.

Last Wednesday, the MINSAP reported more than 100 new cases of coronavirus in three days.

That day they were diagnosed 43 new cases of the disease, of which the majority (33), corresponded to children under 20 years of age.

The province most affected on that date was Holguín, with 14 of the 43 cases. Since the beginning of the month, when the number of infected children increased to 77 In 14 days, the authorities of that territory sounded the alarm about the rise in the incidence rate, and even the local press denounced that "the guard has been lowered."

On May 9, the doctor Raúl Guinovart, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing at the University of Havana, predicted a slight increase in COVID-19 cases for the coming weeks.

In a meeting of the country's leadership with scientists and health experts, Guinovart pointed out that from May 1 to 7 the number of cases remained the same as the previous week.

The expert specified that in the last week of April and the first week of May, the accumulated incidence in the country was two cases per 100,000 inhabitants, with a tendency to increase.

"All provinces will maintain the trend of controlling confirmed cases in the following weeks, although the slight increase in the number of confirmed cases will continue," he said, quoted by the web of the Presidency of Cuba.

In particular, he referred to the provinces of Holguín, Las Tunas and Granma, where the highest incidence was concentrated, although overall the epidemiological situation in the country was very similar to that at the beginning of the year.

"The alert remains, since an increase in cases may occur due to the arrival of visitors and the possible entry of new variants. The reproductive number is close to one, indicating that the epidemic tends to persist in the following weeks," he stressed. .

The government of Cuba assures that no cases of the new Ómicron xbb.1.16 coronavirus variant have been detected (also called Arcturus), which is already circulating in more than 30 countries, with a majority of cases in India.

At the beginning of the month, the doctor Francisco Durán García, director of Epidemiology at MINSAP, said that border surveillance is maintained to detect any suspicious case, while paying attention to the behavior of xbb.1.16 in the world.

This Ómicron variant, identified for the first time in January of this year, appears to be more contagious than the previous ones and has a moderate degree of immune escape, that is, it is moderately resistant to people's immune system.

Among the most common symptoms suffered by those infected are very high fever, cough, weakness and conjunctivitis, although regarding this last ailment there is no complete consensus as to what causes it.