Havana, March 18 (RHC)--The Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) reported that in the early hours of this Wednesday, the 61-year-old Italian patient who was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine  (IPK) died due to COVID-19.

In a press statement, the Public Health Ministry said that despite the efforts made by the intensive care team that directly assisted him, as well as by a group of experts that permanently followed him, complications developed as a result of his bronchial asthma, causing the patient' s death.

The Ministry deeply regretted his passing and conveyed its deepest condolences to his family and friends.

The release went on to inform that during the night of March 17, three new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed by the molecular biology laboratory of the Provincial Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology of Villa Clara, for a total of 10 in the country.