Public Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda explained the changes in Matanzas.

Matanzas, July 8 (RHC)-- Cuba announced a modification of its national protocol against COVID-19. The measure aims to ensure that a person with a confirmed diagnosis does not stay at home for a single day.

This Wednesday, Public Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda explained the changes in Matanzas.

From the current epicenter of the pandemic in the country, Portal said that a symptomatic case that is positive to the rapid antigen test would not require the result of a PCR for the confirmation of the disease and, therefore, will immediately receive the first dose of the established drugs and will be transferred to an isolation center for confirmed cases.

If the patient is symptomatic, the antigen test is negative, and he or she is a contact of cases or comes from a complex area, the PCR will be performed, he said, and stressed that contacts of confirmed cases would remain isolated for 14 days and not five, even if they are negative.

Morales Ojeda emphasized that the level of coincidence of the antigen tests with the PCR tests exceeds 90 %.

The health minister added that the protocol is adjusted to the country's needs at this moment of a great resurgence due to the high transmissibility of the most infectious and transmissible strains of the coronavirus.