Molecular biology laboratory for safe tourism in Cayo Largo del Sur
- webmaster
- News
- Hits: 3274
The installation of a molecular biology laboratory in Cayo Largo del Sur will reinforce Cuba's guarantee as a safe destination, Dr. Israel Velázquez Batista, director of the Public Health Sector, told the Cuban News Agency.
The doctor explained that the provision of equipment for the on-site analysis of the tests - Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) - fundamentally to workers and travelers from abroad will save time waiting for results and resources for concept of air transportation of samples to the “Pedro Kourí” Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK).
Precisely at the IPK, microbiology specialists and laboratory graduates received training for a month in the processing of samples and biosafety protocols, so that vacationers have full enjoyment in the country, commented the highest health authority in the territory .
He pointed out that they are currently working on changing the use of the premises, conceived on that islet of the Los Canarreos archipelago to perform the PCR in real time, where - once equipped with state-of-the-art technology - the novel diagnostic system will enable the detection of the positive cases for SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the pandemic.
For next November, the laboratory is expected to start operating in order to carry out epidemiological surveillance, the month in which the arrival of foreign travelers to that pole is estimated, said the highest health authority in the special municipality.
He recalled that previously the international airport "Vilo Acuña" was certified, which has signs on the floor for the physical distancing of passengers, places where they must travel and propaganda allusive to the hygienic-sanitary measures of strict compliance.
In correspondence with the demands of a context marked by COVID-19, the presence in the hotel facilities of doctors, nurses and hygiene and epidemiology technicians is also established for the clinical-epidemiological surveillance of vacationers, Velázquez Batista said.