After the start-up of the Molecular Biology Laboratory, the province of Las Tunas increases its capacity to process samples for the detection of COVID-19, the good news that comes when the provincial capital shows the most complex situation since the pandemic began.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- The director of the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology (CPHEM), Maikel Corrales Manzano, on the Alto y Claro radio program (Loud and Clear), updated the epidemiological panorama of the province, which despite being the only one that remains in the new normal stage, has had a notable increase in confirmed cases in recent weeks, mainly in Las Tunas city.
The laboratory, still in the certification phase, with the accompaniment of the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, gradually incorporates the analysis of PCR samples (polymerase chain reaction, by its English acronym), a development that allowed this Friday the study of more than 300 exams, although confirmation is carried out in centers of this type in other territories, he pointed out.
Aldo Cortés González, deputy director of the CPHEM, also meant that the first half of April has already closed and the increase in cases compared to other months is evident, a situation that conditions the prognoses of new diagnoses for the coming weeks, taking into account the behavior of the disease between 70 and 98 previous days.
During the live program, the specialists affirmed that the novel biomolecular center already reports high effectiveness in the studies to detect the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, a process that is consolidated with the constant training of almost 40 professionals who work there, which were prepared in the neighboring province of Holguín.
Although the greatest complexity is located in the capital city, the health and government authorities have provided a group of measures that range from control at travel points and borders, to restriction of mobility in buildings and districts with a considerable number of confirmed cases.
This Saturday, Las Tunas confirmed 20 new positives to the COVID-19, of which five are imported and 15 indigenous (14 are contacts of confirmed cases, and in one the source of infection is investigated), a situation that activates the alarms for a territory that has remained among those with the lowest incidence in the country, and today reports a rate of 25.0 per 100,000 inhabitants.
