With human and technological capabilities to process some 3,000 samples daily, the Molecular Biology Laboratory (LBM) of the Roberto Rodríguez Provincial General Teaching Hospital, in the municipality of Morón, maintains a rhythm of work in accordance with the complexities in the epidemiological situation.
Dr. Tatiana Artiles Herrera, head of the LBM Department, specified that more than 1,100 RT-PCR tests (polymerase chain reaction with reverse transcription, in real time) are carried out in one day, up to 500 with samples from Jardines del Rey to ensure safety in tourist operations.
When the flights arrive at the international airport, they check travelers, randomly, and, in the case of Canadians, all are examined before returning, at the request of the tour operators, based on existing agreements between Cuba and Canada, she explained.
The rest of the intakes come from hospitals, isolation centers, acute respiratory infections clinics and population studies (in vulnerable areas or with a higher concentration of cases) and institutional (in work centers, day care centers and homes for the elderly, maternal and disabled people care institutions), fundamentally.
Last December, she pointed out that they conducted more than 34,800 exams and, so far, in January, they are close to 8,000; in addition to the confirmation that they are prepared to take on the 3,000 daily tests if necessary and offer support to other provinces that require it.
At the beginning of the year, studies in the population at risk increased, due to the rise in positive cases for the disease, after public holidays and because of the epidemiological complexities in Cuba and the world, she said.
Artiles Herrera stressed the diagnostic actions also correspond to the characteristics of the virus, which tends to manifest itself mildly or asymptomatically after immunization, which increases the risks of transfer, also due to its high contagiousness.
The doctor pointed out that samples are taken in the places with the highest concentration of cases and are sent to the “Pedro Kourí” Institute of Tropical Medicine, in Havana, to determine the presence of Omicron, a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is causing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Located among those with the highest processing capacity due to its importance to ensure the reliability of tourist operations, the LBM has modern technology, including three thermal cyclers with total space for 216 samples, the also specialist in Clinical Laboratory explained.
Another guarantee is the completion of the workforce, distributed in four teams of six or seven workers, mostly young graduates in the years 2020 and 2021, such as former students in Cynical Bioanalysis or Clinical Laboratory technicians, the latter linked to higher education, she pointed.
She also referred to the indispensable work of the support staff: computer scientists, cleaning assistants, pantry workers and autoclave operators (in charge of handling and decontamination of waste).
Since its opening on October 2, 2020, the LBM of the province of Ciego de Ávila, located in the hospital of the municipality of Morón due to its proximity to Jardines del Rey tourist destination, has processed almost 700 000 samples for RT-PCR, a figure that places it among those with the best yields in the country.
The head of that department recalled that at the beginning they carried out about 40 exams a day, so that it seemed impossible to reach 1000; however, in just two months they reached and exceeded that number.
This institution, among the first of its kind in the nation, contributed to the diagnosis of the disease in travelers who arrived through other air terminals and patients from provinces of the Central and Eastern regions, in addition to the support for the accreditation and training of Sancti Spíritus and Camagüey professionals.
In the territory of Ciego de Ávila, the disease is also diagnosed in the Microbiology Laboratory located in the capital city, using SUMA technology, by antigen detection, but the presence of the virus is only confirmed from the results of the LBM.
