Cuba confirms first three imported cases of new coronavirus

Cuba's Ministry of Public Health confirmed on Wednesday night the first three cases of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in tourists from Italy.
 

In an official statement read on Cuban TV prime news hour the health authorities explained that the three Italian travelers arrived in Havana on Monday 9 and went to Trinidad, in the central province of Sancti Spíritus, where they were detected to have respiratory sysmptons.

Immediately, they were transfered on Tuesday to the Institute of Tropical Medicina IPK in Havana where they tested positive to the Covid-19 and immediately isolated. They are out of danger.

'As a result of the implementation of the national plan for the prevention and control of this disease and the intensive surveillance on respiratory syndromes, four suspicious cases were identified and admitted to a special care unit,' the press handout adds.

The IPK's National Reference Laboratory confirmed that three of the four Italian tourists tested positive for the new coronavirus.

According to the statement, health authorities are maintaining surveillance and epidemiological control of the people identified as contacts, who remain asymptomatic.

So far, the medical assessment of the three confirmed patients is favorable, the note concluded.