Cuban ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel launched an alert this Saturday due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in several provinces of the country in recent days, according to a report in the official Granma newspaper.
The situation is especially worrying in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus (132 cases), Ciego de Ávila (77), Holguín (90) and Santiago de Cuba (84), the state newspaper stressed.
This Sunday, the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) confirmed 786 new cases, for a cumulative total of 1,081,472 since the pandemic began in March 2020.
Cuba had kept the virus at bay in recent months, according to official figures published daily by MINSAP, information that cannot be independently verified.
The decrease in coronavirus cases led to a relaxation of sanitary measures in the country, including the reopening of national borders to international tourism and the restart of the school year with face-to-face classes. Now, Díaz-Canel is calling for “tightening control and speeding up the pace with the booster vaccine,” Granma said.
3,202 people confirmed with COVID-19 remain hospitalized in the country. On Saturday, the authorities reported the death of two people, one resident in Ciego de Ávila and another in Camagüey.
“We are going to see if the government begins to take this seriously. The cases are going up again, already in Havana the cases are beginning to rise, plus those that are not reported due to lack of supplies to do rapid tests and PCR,” Isis Bravo Trujillo from the capital commented on Facebook.
In February, Cuba limited the COVID-19 tests to people with respiratory symptoms, amid the discontent of the population, who feared an increase in infections.
Bravo Trujillo recalled that now the schools are open with the new school year, relaxation of security measures is observed, as well as the lack of mandatory use of the mask.
“We are not going to regret a big wave again, when temporary measures can be taken. Definitely, the Omicron subvariant is already in Cuba, since the increase in cases coincidentally always occurs 3-4 weeks after Europe,” he added.
At the end of January, the Minister of Public Health of Cuba, José Ángel Portal Miranda, clarified that vaccination is not enough to stop the pandemic, and that the situation in the country with infections by Ómicron continued to be worrying, after statements by Díaz- Canel who claimed the opposite.
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