(Foto: Vicente Brito / Escambray)

Havana, November 18 (RHC)--After an analysis of the behavior of the health indicators during the last 15 days, the Temporary Working Group for the Prevention and Control of the New Coronavirus approved on Tuesday the transition of Sancti Spiritus Province to the recovery stage of COVID-19 in its phase one.

During the meeting, the Minister of Public Health, José Angel Portal Miranda, explained that this central territory has maintained, for the last four weeks, a declining trend in confirmed cases of the disease, although not all municipalities have had similar behavior of health indicators.

Considering this reality, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said it was decided to maintain the autochthonous transmission phase limited to Sancti Spíritus and Cabaiguán's municipalities,  to move Trinidad to phase two of the recovery stage and the rest of the municipalities to phase three.

Referring to Santiago de Cuba, a province that this Tuesday reported two new positive patients, it already had 35 persons infected from imported cases.

Portal Miranda informed about the opening of a local transmission event in the Popular Council of Altamira, from the capital municipality, which already had 27 confirmed cases.

Governor Beatriz Johnson Urrutia pointed out that, since the declaration of the new normality in Santiago's territory, international flights have resumed, in which travelers carrying the COVID-19 had come, generating chains of infections and the opening of 13 outbreak controls.

According to the Governor, a rigorous plan has been put in place, including actions of epidemiological surveillance and others of an organizational nature and to confronting social indisciplines.

As of Tuesday, 96 people remained hospitalized in Santiago; 54 were positive patients, 38 were suspects, and the rest were under observation.