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Havana cancels its reopening after the increase in COVID-19 cases

2020-08-09T06:10:44.795Z


Cuba registered 2,888 cases, including 88 deaths. "We are in the presence of a new epidemic outbreak of the disease," said the Cuban Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal.


The capital of Cuba, Havana, canceled the reopening measures in force since last July and imposed strong restrictions on Saturday again due to the rapid increase in new cases of COVID-19 in the last two weeks, which also threatens to spread to the rest of Cuba.

"The forecast indicates that the situation is close to becoming uncontrollable if we do not take all the measures (...) The threat of continuing to grow in infections is accentuated with each passing day," the Cuban Minister of Health insisted on a television appearance this Saturday. , José Ángel Portal.

59 new cases -41 imported from Venezuela- were officially reported, a figure that had not been seen in Cuba since a relaxation of restrictions was decreed in mid-June thanks to a control of the pandemic.

"Since July 21 we are seeing an increasing number of confirmed cases per day, which puts the country in a very complicated situation," Portal said.

"We are in the presence of a new epidemic outbreak of the disease," added the official.

The number followed an upward trend in recent days and with it 2,888 cases were accumulated, including 88 deaths, indicated the health authorities. There are more than 300 active cases.

The capital, so far the only region of the country stalled in phase 1 of the de-escalation a month ago, concentrates 205 of the 321 cases of coronavirus detected in the last two weeks on the island.

Although mandatory confinement was never decreed on the island, between now and next Monday, measures such as the total paralysis of public transport, the closure of beaches, swimming pools and bars, and severe restrictions on access and exit will be in force in the capital. from Havana, according to Governor Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar.

The city's restaurants and cafes will only sell takeout. Other provisions will be announced in the following hours.

"Human health is a public good and we all have the responsibility to protect it. The population has to understand these limitations and the sacrifices they entail, because nothing is above health," Portal stressed.

The most compromised situation is found in the western provinces of the country, especially in Havana and Artemisa, where there are several sources detected and on which work is being done to control transmission. The rest of the country, although with few restrictions, has a less difficult health position.

Dangerous increase in cases

The peak of the pandemic in Cuba took place between April 12 and 18, with a daily average of fifty new cases, according to official data.

As of May, the situation began to improve, a trend that was consolidated in June, when the authorities declared the disease controlled in the country.

On July 20, Cuba celebrated its first infection-free day since the beginning of the epidemic in March, although the day before, the only registered case was one from abroad.

The identification and isolation of those confirmed and their contacts, together with studies in vulnerable communities in search of "hidden" cases, paid off and stopped the spread of the virus, to the point that in mid-June the entire country, except Havana and La nearby Matanzas, began the gradual reopening process in three phases.

At the beginning of July only the capital was detecting new patients and all predicted a rapid advance in the de-escalation, until the appearance of an outbreak in the province of Artemisa (at that time in phase 3), which borders the capital, triggered the alarms .

Shortly after, another focus of coronavirus emerged in that same province, now in the Mariel Special Development Zone, and almost at the same time, the cases increased in a recently reopened Havana, which today maintains six "epidemiological events", three of them concentrated in the eastern coastal area.

The outbreaks in Havana are mostly related to construction sites, bars, and private parties.

In just two weeks, the increase in infections led the island from having active only 2% of the accumulated cases, to today having 12.3%. In the first eight days of August, 90% of all cases in July were registered, the Cuban Minister of Health reported.

The authorities' response was to close entire communities in Artemisa, which passed to phase 2, and increase restrictions in Havana, the most populated city on the island, where the trend towards dispersal of cases makes their control more difficult.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel had already recently called attention to the increase that "could even" affect the restart of the school year in September and announced that they would make the decisions necessary to stop the spread of the virus.

"Our hand will not shake" to stop and reestablish restrictions in the provinces if necessary, Portal ratified on Saturday.

"The virus is among us, it is highly contagious and most of the population is still susceptible to it, which means that the epidemic can easily grow in places where the measures established for the different phases are no longer met," he added. .

With information from AP and Efe.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2020-08-09

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