A 49-year-old doctor from Havana became the first health professional to die in Cuba of covid-19 since the island reported the first cases of the virus in March 2020, authorities reported on Thursday.
He is “the first doctor to die (on the island)” and “unquestionably a severe blow to all Cubans,” said Francisco Durán, head of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health’s Epidemiology, when he conveyed his condolences to relatives and friends of the deceased.
At the regular television press conference to report on the progress of the pandemic, Durán said that the doctor, who lived in Havana, contracted the virus in his community and “does not work in the red zone, which is the most common.”
The doctor, one of four coronavirus deaths reported by Cuba on Thursday, showed the first symptoms of covid-19 on December 30 and “developed a group of respiratory complications mainly,” including “pneumonia that evolved very unfavorably “, added the expert.
He died on Wednesday “in a multi-organ dysfunction, after making a cardiac arrest that does not respond to resuscitation maneuvers.”
Durán himself reported the deaths of three Cuban nurses and a coronavirus doctor in October, but while collaborating outside the island.
The expert then specified that none of the three were part of the Henry Reeve contingent, which specializes in natural disasters and epidemics, of which Cuba sent 55 brigades to 40 countries to fight the pandemic.
Cuba recorded a low rate of infections, but after the Christmas holidays and the increased influx of tourists and Cubans residing abroad, cases rose rapidly, with a record 825 positive covid-19 on Tuesday.
Even so, the island, which has 11.2 million inhabitants, is one of the least affected countries in the region, with 24,105 infections, 208 deaths and 19,050 recovered.