He noted that 11 have come out of critical condition, seven remain in therapy, and that the average time for the use of respirators is 8.5 days.
According to Durán, 29 patients, or 28.4 percent, have died in the hospitals where COVID-19 is treated. Together with the eight who have died in the intensive care areas of other facilities, this adds up to 37, for a mortality rate of 36.2 percent, below international reports.
Another point of interest in his speech was that recently a group of researchers in Switzerland, from the study of certain autopsies, gave information that the COVID-19, more than a pneumonia, what it produces is a thrombotic disease that leads to death, and therefore recommend changing the treatment protocol.
However, the doctor argued that this is not an extended criterion, and that the disease, although it generates vascular problems, what predominates is the respiratory condition and pneumonia, which is why Cuba opts to continue with the treatment as it is currently defined.
He added that in Cuba the information and studies that are being published are being reviewed all the time, taking into account that this is a new disease for the world.
He recalled that the illness generated by SARS-CoV-2 can often be asymptomatic; there are people who develop the symptoms and three to five days before they appear they already transmit the disease.
There are also others who are post-symptomatic, which is why it is not possible to define when the clinical manifestations appear, he said.
Similarly, he said that transmission has to do with a person’s movements and activity, and with the application of measures to prevent the spread: “We don’t consider that there are climatic factors or social determinants, but rather that the places where one acts quickly, taking measures with discipline, manage to control the disease,” he said.
Today, Cuba shows a total of 1,285 cases of SARS-CoV-2, which is already present in all the provinces of the country and the Special Municipality of the Isle of Youth. Of these, 807 patients maintain a stable clinical evolution, seven are reported to be in a critical state, there are four serious cases, 49 deaths and 416 medical discharges.
Meanwhile, there are more than two and a half million people in the world who are positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and 182,000 have died due to the pandemic.
