Havana, April 3 (RHC)-- Cuba reported 36 new cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Friday, bringing to 269 the cases testing positive on the island.

Of the confirmed events, 35 are Cuban nationals, and one is a Chinese citizen. All of the cases had their origin abroad or were contacts of previously confirmed cases.

In the daily briefing on the development of the epidemic on the island, the head of Epidemiology at the Ministry of Public Affairs, Dr. Francisco Duran, said that 3,241 people are hospitalized --an increase of over 1 thousand in just one day.   

Of them, 1518, are suspects of carrying the virus, and 247 confirmed cases are hospitalized. 239 are in stable, 2 in serious, and 6 in critical condition.

So far, 15 people have recovered from the disease and have been discharged from hospitals. They must still spend 14 days quarantined at home.
­­
26 587 people, travelers of their contacts, remain under house observation by the primary health system in the communities.

Dr. Duran added that on Thursday, 803 cases were studied in the three laboratories in the country devoted to the diagnosing of COVID-19,  the highest amount of lab tests performed in one day.  

Since the first cases were reported in Cuba in early March, six people have died due to the novel coronavirus.

One hundred seventy-eight countries are reporting the presence of COVID-19 worldwide. There are some 1 million cases confirmed, with some 50,000 deaths.

The region of the Americas reports 250 thousand cases, representing 26% of the world’s total cases.