You don't know what you have until it's your turn, we could say in a very free adaptation of the saying, to summarize some of the experiences of a neighbor, friend, relative or acquaintance of yours, or who knows if of yourself, during the course of the last quarter of the current year.
After a whole year of confronting the Covid-19 pandemic in our country, surely someone close to you (including yourself) had to experience a strict quarantine in some area of residence, after several people in the building where you live were diagnosed as positive to the new coronavirus.
As in so many other places in the country, this point of transmission of the contagious disease is not reached only by chance or bad luck. The alert that several neighbors have been making for months has not had a receptive ear in part of the community, and this has led to this complex situation.
But from this story it is possible to extract other general considerations. The deployment of control and assurance measures to stop a Covid-19 outbreak implies a high degree of coordination and joint work between all the links of the community.
The Municipal Defense Council, the People's Council, the district delegates, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and the Federation of Cuban Women, all government structures at the grassroots and neighborhood organizations, are essential for the rapid containment of a chain of contagion.
Special mention should be made of the public health personnel, the family doctor's office and epidemiology specialists, who work very hard every time such a situation arises in a population. The speed of PCR tests and the dynamic management of their results are the key to ensuring prompt diagnosis and isolation of all positive cases.
It is not easy to stay at home all the time, and on this occasion we must highlight all that has been done to ensure access to essential services, with particular recognition to the people who volunteer to help in the courier service, to help the neighborhood to buy basic necessities, medicines or other emergencies that inevitably arise in situations of this type.
The discipline of those who live in an area with high Covid-19 transmission is another essential element to reduce the duration of the outbreak or event.
Undoubtedly, solidarity and help among neighbors, even in the midst of precautions to avoid contact and maintain physical distance, remain as an important lesson in difficult episodes such as this one we have just overcome in my neighborhood, but that can still happen in many other communities. This does not mean that there are no contradictions, and even some misunderstandings, attributable both to the logical tensions of quarantine, as well as to previous unresolved problems.
However, to rise above any quarrel or specific difficulty is another of the secrets in moments like this, where unity of action and the primary interest for the collective welfare must prevail. Hopefully, then, no one will have to go through this strict quarantine before a Covid-19 outbreak or event, but we must know that it is not impossible to overcome it, if we do what corresponds to each one of us in this sacred mission of these times, which is to take care of our health and that of others.
Source: Trabajadores Newspaper