CAMAGÜEY.- When the first cases of COVID-19 in the country were confirmed in March 2020, Camagüey Health personnel, already on the front line, put on gloves and masks to combat the novel disease.

After more than a year of hard work, physical exhaustion is greater, the tasks more complex and on a large number of fronts, so the support of other sectors and young people is essential.

Although the most recognized work of the students of the Carlos J. Finlay University of Medical Sciences (UCM) is in the investigations, those who knock on our doors every day to ask and worry are not the only students in that branch who stay awake to take care of us after the outbreak of COVID-19 in the province.

Similarly, the presence of other groups in isolation centers, laboratories and statistics departments is vital in controlling the epidemic.

Elizabeth Cruz Aróstegui is one of those essential young women. She is included in the 20 Cuban 5th grade students of Clinical Bioanalysis that supports the study of PCR samples at the Molecular Biology Laboratory in Camagüey. The two foreigners who complete the enrollment collaborate in the clinical laboratory of the Manuel Ascunce Domenech university hospital.

“In January they chose ten of us to join the newly opened center. When we arrived we had a time of preparation and training in charge of the main professionals, and then they integrated us into the guard teams to carry out their same functions. It was not difficult to start if we talk about work, but it was very shocking, because you face the virus directly, "said Elizabeth.

According to Dr. Pablo R. Betancourt Álvarez, academic vice-rector of the UCM, the boys rotate through all the departments to learn about the processes in general and become familiar with each of the procedures and techniques.

"Although certain aspects dominate due to the practices carried out during their studies, the challenge was to face more technology and more pressure due to the connotation of the task."

Jessica Marina Sifontes, another of the students who is part of the group, confirms. “The shifts are 24 hours and we rest 72. On the day that we have to, we work at all hours, because we know that we must speed up the process. At night we do the same procedure. When it dawns, we prepare a detailed part of everything we did, the number of samples analyzed, how many were negative, how many positive, or which ones must be repeated ”.

In this sense, her colleague Lisbeth Lara Rodríguez comments: “This job requires a lot of concentration. We must focus on what we do in each area because a mistake made, for example, in the reception of samples, affects all departments and the final result. "

It is precisely because of the seriousness they show in each shift that the institution's management appreciates the decision to place them there, and acknowledges that they are among the first to arrive and hardly even rest. In addition, they take advantage of the experience of professionals and consult them with any questions.

To the performance of these young people are added the hours dedicated by the boys of the technological careers, specifically in the information system, to the epidemiological statistical processing of the territory, and the work of others in Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing in the isolation centers located in the University itself.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez