Cuban people receives the year 2021 with a complex epidemiological situation, based on the spread of the new coronavirus. The current figures imply a setback to Phase 3 for provinces that were in the new normality, while others remain threatened because their conditions are alarming too.

Efforts are made in order to contain the disease from different settings and the appropriate conditions are created to care for suspected and infected patients.

Based on indications from the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP by its Spanish initials), the Roberto Rodríguez General Teaching Hospital, located in the city of Morón, with the experience of the previous rebound, restored its Red Zone to receive asymptomatic positive cases and without comorbidities. A dozen infected patients and two infants identified as suspects (the latter ones in the company of their mothers) receive medical care there and are progressing favorably.

Doctor Juan Carlos Villares Vázquez, director of the aforementioned Health institution, in dialogue with el Portal Avileño, said that “the structures created in previous months for the care of patients with Covid-19 were never dismantled, just a set of beds to offer facilities to other services, reducing capacities from 160 to 60. We also kept three beds in the Intensive Care Health Room for adults and one in the children's Health Room. The conceived infrastructure allows us to reactivate that area in a few hours, even to expand in a short period ”.

The timely planning of the actions to be carried out at each stage of the confrontation with the pandemic and the complexities envisioned by the country's leadership also promoted the reestablishment of the so-called Red Zone. “We even recently carried out an exercise during which it was defined what other rooms will be taken to increase the service if necessary. This is a dynamic process that we rehearse with maintenance, nursing and healthcare personnel.

“The lack of trained workforces to carry out this mission, which was one of the issues that affected us during the past year, no longer represents a concern for our institution, taking into account that we have enough qualified and experienced personnel.

“All those who serve in the Red Zone receive an update on the hygienic-epidemiological measures that they must comply with. It is essential that the worker knows what he is going to face and how to treat the patient to save him, in addition to learning to take care of his health through responsible behavior and the proper use of means of protection.

“We also have the drugs established in the protocol for treating the disease and a group of experts who ensure their proper application. By the way, this hospital is part of studies and clinical trials carried out in the country with drugs to ensure a response to the disease.

“Many of the drugs supplied to patients with Covid-19 are also used for the care of patients suffering from other acute respiratory infections that generate inflammatory processes and complications that can trigger deaths. The results have been very effective.

“We have managed to stay at the forefront, we even have medical personnel who have been trained in the capital. It is our modest contribution and response to the call made by the President of the Republic of Cuba to confront the terrible pandemic that is plaguing the world. We are a poor and small country, however, we have a human potential that allows us to excel in this fight. "

In the current circumstances, the reinforcement of biosecurity measures is of vital importance and the individual responsibility of workers is emphasized.

“The workers of this center are called to take extreme measures of self-protection and to comply with the protocols established by MINSAP, for which we have created the indispensable conditions.

“There is a filter inside the hospital, duly equipped for the sanitation and disinfection of personnel when entering and leaving. However, each room has spaces for such purposes and for the placement and removal of means of protection, that are used in correspondence with the activities carried out by the workers, as established in the MINSAP protocols.

“In the particular case of the Red Zone, a critical route was enabled for the promotion and abandonment of that area, which avoids the contact of its workers with the rest of the personnel. Thus, the conditions for safe performance have been created, favoring not only the self-protection of workers, but also the care of their relatives, neighbors and the rest of the people with whom they have contact as part of their social life. . "

"Our laundry has assumed, in the different stages, the washing and treatment of the clothing and lingerie of all patients, including those treated by Covid-19, for which the biosecurity protocol is strictly implemented: the hygiene of garment is carried out in differentiated washing machines and dryers, and the flow from the Red Zone is different from the rest of the rooms. "

Likewise, they guarantee the availability of disinfecting solutions and foot passages in access areas, ensure compliance with social distancing measures, carry out sanitation work in elevators, stretchers, walls, floors and other surfaces that can be infected with the virus. They insist on reducing the unnecessary entry of people and carry out investigations into the highest risk services, this last one favored by the decrease in flights from abroad, based on measures adopted in the Cuban nation to contain the transmission of the virus.

“There is greater coverage to promote studies of the population at risk. In the hospital, particularly, we are conducting examinations of patients who come to the Guard Corps with respiratory ailments, and the cases of hemodialysis and the team that attends them. Then, we will proceed to investigate the intensive care rooms and the Guard Corps, until completing the PCR on all of our workers.

“The Temporary Working Group to Confront Covid-19 in the municipality, draws up policies for the execution of investigations in the areas of greatest risk, while we contribute mostly from the Molecular Biology Laboratory. It works in order to speed up the performance of PCR, so that the results favor timely decision-making where there are positive cases and isolation measures are adopted to minimize the risks of complications and prevent the spread of the disease.

At the end of the dialogue and, in a call to the people, Dr. Villares Vázquez considered appropriate to reiterate that “individual and collective responsibility are fundamental to prevent this dangerous disease that plagues the world and has claimed many lives, in addition to generating a deep economic and social crisis. Our actions must be in line with the efforts made by the Cuban nation to contain the virus."