Israel Velázquez Batista, director of the Public Health Sector, today inaugurated the molecular biology laboratory in Isla de la Juventud, a facility with which Cuba completes its network to face, among other pathologies, COVID-19.
Now it is up to you to take care of it, said Major General Ramón Pardo Guerra - chief of the Civil Defense Staff - who, by participating in the opening ceremony of this work, praised the country's effort to, in less than a year , equip all provinces with this type of diagnostic center.
He also pondered the quality of the finishing of the civil works, where it will be possible to detect in 12 hours the positive cases to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of the pandemic, and resources will be saved by air transportation of the samples to the Institute of Tropical Medicine. "Pedro Kourí" (IPK), in Havana.
Precisely at the IPK a group of doctors, specialists in microbiology and laboratory graduates was trained, where they received training in molecular biology techniques for the diagnosis of SARS CoV-2 and biosafety protocols, said Viviana Louit Lavadí, one of the team members.
The microbiology graduate and technical head of the laboratory of the Municipal Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology (CHEM) pointed out that this potential will be used both for the sampling of SARS CoV-2 and for the detection of fungal, bacterial, and sexually transmitted diseases neurological, HIV-AIDS and epidermal, based on the availability of reagents.
At the event it was learned that since last February 7 a brigade of non-state workers dedicated more than 12 hours of work to changing the use of a premises, located in the CHEM, containing four departments: reception of samples, extraction, PCR and autoclave.
The civil engineer Alexander González Leyva, head of the non-state workers brigade, on behalf of those who in just over two months completed the now modern equipped facility, expressed the willingness of his group to undertake any other mission entrusted to him by the management of the territory.
Velázquez Batista, stressed that this is one of the largest works built by the Revolution in order to guarantee a better quality of life for the more than 83 thousand inhabitants, which has state-of-the-art technology from Asia for in situ analysis of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests.
This project prioritizes the hazardous waste evacuation system, for which a brigade of the integral construction company executed a reinforced concrete septic tank adjusted to the biosafety requirements that responds to the needs of this diagnostic center and the CHEM laboratory, where other pathologies are processed.
With this, the special municipality adds the second laboratory of its kind, the first was built in Cayo Largo del Sur, in order to carry out epidemiological surveillance of foreign travelers who arrive at that pole, which reinforces the guarantee of Cuba as a tourist destination insurance.
The act chaired by the Municipal Defense Council and the presence of Pardo Guerra, chief of the Civil Defense General Staff, served to recognize companies, entities and organizations that contributed with popular mobilization to the culmination of this type of laboratory of national interest in 70 days and valued at 1.8 million CUP.
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