For the first time in 26 months and since this Tuesday, Cubans can go out without a mask, but the reception of the elimination of its mandatory use was, at least first thing in the morning, very timid.
In the streets of Havana, it could be observed, approximately, that out of every ten people, only one or two were not wearing a mask.
“I took it off because I wanted to feel what it’s like to breathe with that thing after so long the air on my face,” said a young woman from Centro Habana, visibly happy not to wear it. “A curious thing is that people look at you as if they were looking for approval to take it away, and when they see you without it, then they take it away too.”
The youngest are, without a doubt, the most grateful for the end of this prohibition. There are not a few studies that have shown the ineffectiveness of masks to prevent infections in children and the learning difficulties that they have entailed.
Less happy were the elderly, among whom almost none were seen without a mask
Less happy were the elderly, among whom almost none were seen without a mask. “Look at that, what kind of danger, what irresponsibility!” He came to shout a name of about eighty years to a father who went hand in hand with his daughter without the garment.
Today, in any case, the fines for not wearing a mask are history, which could range between 2,000 and 3,000 pesos, according to current regulations. from September 2020 (Then the basic salary was still 400 pesos per month). The first weeks after the measure was implemented, the sanctions exceeded a thousand daily.
They were punishments, however, that, once commercial flights were opened in the country, on November 15, 2021, they were not applied. to foreign touristss, whom the Police did not even call attention to if they walked down the street without a mask. In those days, it must be said, in much of the world the obligation to wear outdoor garments had been eliminated, after reaching a large percentage of the population vaccinated with different antidotes, recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In this sense, in Cuba, the elimination of the masks has been long in coming, despite the fact that the Government has presumed for months to have most of its population vaccinated with its own drugs, Soberana 02, Soberana Plus and Abdala, to date not approved by WHO.
The comings and goings on the manufacture of blue nationals within the Island, something that, after announce with great fanfare in 2021just started to materialize just last aprilwhen the pandemic was on its way out across the planet.
The relaxation of the measures against the covid-19 pandemic, announced this Monday by the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, are given, according to the official explanationdue to the decrease in the transmission of the disease in May by 81.1% compared to April.
However, the Government has called for caution. “Finally without masks, but not always or in all situations. I recommend that you see the adaptation of our protocols for this stage. An informed people is a protected people,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on Twitter.
Health authorities insist that the use of masks is a “personal decision” and recommend wearing it in spaces where many people gather or it is not possible to maintain physical distance. This is what happened this Tuesday in the markets of Havana, where, despite being outdoors, not many traveled without a mask.
Yes, its use will continue to be mandatory in medical consultations or in “areas with restricted focus controls,” according to Minister Portal Miranda.
Yes, its use will continue to be mandatory in medical consultations or in “areas with restricted focus controls,” according to Minister Portal Miranda. At the same time, the decision is maintained not to allow people “with respiratory symptoms” to enter work and student centers.
The measure will be in force depending on the behavior of the country’s epidemiological situation and its effectiveness will be evaluated “periodically”, and readjustments may even be made, the authorities warn.
this same Tuesday, the part of public health It shows only 29 positives for the coronavirus, 176 active and, again, no deaths, among the lowest statistics reported since November 2020.
In any case, the official figures are being questioned since, this month, the latest demographic data was made public by the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei). According to a report dated May 11, in 2021 55,206 more Cubans died on the Island than in 2020, that is, a total of 167,645 people compared to the 112,439 who did so the previous year, an increase of 49.1%.
The figure contrasts abysmally with the deaths reported by covid-19 during 2021 by Public Health, 8,177, which indicates an underreporting in the official data of the pandemic on the Island of 47,029. That is, the underestimation was 85.2% (there were 6.75 times more deaths than those officially attributed to covid). Or put another way, during the pandemic the Cuban government has declared only a seventh of those who died of coronavirus.
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