Havana, September 7 (RHC)—The National Director of Epidemiology of Cuba, Dr. Francisco Duran, informed that the island continued increasing the number of samples to detect COVID-19. It reached a new record of 7164 on Sunday.

This res

ponds to the efforts by Cuban authorities to expand population screening through PCR tests to detect asymptomatic carriers of the disease. For that purpose, the amount of molecular biology laboratories has been extended to 12, operating in all regions of the country.

As a result of the 7164 samples study, 43 people tested positive with SARS-Cov-2, for a cumulative of 4352 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Havana, the epicenter of the disease on the island, reported 17 cases, one of them contracted the disease abroad.

Dr. Duran reported one fatality. This brings the death toll to 102 patients.

 Meanwhile, a small outbreak of COVID-19 cases has prompted authorities to reclose schools in the central Cuban province of Ciego de Avila, only a week after they opened.

The province´s school director, Bárbara Rodríguez, said 75 of the province’s 90 schools would return to televised teaching on Monday. Students had returned to classrooms only on Sept.1 after a six-month break.

The province has reported 30 new infections with the new coronavirus over the past 15 days.