Cuba registers 56 new patients and one death by COVID-19 in the last 24 hours

Cuba registered 56 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of patients on the island due to the new coronavirus to 620, according to the daily report offered by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP).

The death toll from the disease reached 16, after the death of a 91-year-old woman. Meanwhile, five patients are still in critical condition and seven in serious condition due to the disease.

Also, 26 patients were discharged yesterday, raising the number of cured patients to 77 after receiving the medical treatment designed on the island to fight the new coronavirus.

At the close of this Friday, 2,415 patients were admitted to hospitals for clinical-epidemiological surveillance. Meanwhile, another 7,128 people remain under primary healthcare surveillance in their homes.

According to the MINSAP report, of the new confirmed cases 55 are Cuban and a foreigner, of Bolivian nationality.

The danger of asymptomatic patients

Dr. Francisco Durán, director of epidemiology of MINSAP, specified in the press conference that 31 (55.3%) of those newly infected had remained asymptomatic until the time that the real-time PCR tests were performed.

About these patients, Durán explained that they were detected “by the search process under way, of having the contacts identified,” which is why the health authorities insisted on the need to comply with the measures of social distancing and sincerity in the screenings about the contacts of confirmed cases with the presence of the virus.

Viruses that cause respiratory illness generally spread when people are actively ill, especially when they cough or sneeze, and release virus-laden droplets into the air around them.

But in the case of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the infections have occurred silently, that is, from people who, without developing symptoms, already transmitted the coronavirus.

Exponential increase in COVID-19 patients?

Although the impact of COVID-19 on the island has shown slow growth since the first positive cases were reported a month ago, in the last week there has been a worrying takeoff of the total number of infected, which more than doubled since last Saturday’s report, when there were 288 confirmed cases.

In the report of the closing of 12 o’clock last night of the distribution by municipalities of confirmed cases, the appearance of new events of local transmission of the virus in Cabaiguán and Taguasco, Sancti Spíritus, is notable:

• Mayabeque: 2 (1 from Melena del Sur municipality and 1 from Madruga)
• Havana: 19 (the municipalities of Old Havana, Marianao and Boyeros, 3 each; Centro Habana, Diez de Octubre and El Cerro, 2 each; Cotorro; San Miguel del Padrón, La Lisa and Plaza, 1 each).
• Villa Clara: 11 (7 from Santa Clara municipality, 3 from Camajuaní and 1 from Cifuentes)
• Sancti Spíritus 19 (10 from Taguasco municipality, 8 from Cabaiguán and 1 from Trinidad)
• Ciego de Ávila: 1 (from Venezuela municipality)
• Camagüey: 3 (from Camagüey municipality)
• Las Tunas: 1 (from Las Tunas municipality)

Experts in Cuba foresee that, if the upward trend continues, Cuba could reach the peak of coronavirus infections in early May.

Here you can find the most recent data  and how the coronavirus curve is evolving on the island, one month after the first report of SARS-CoV-2 positive patients.