Cuba reinforces measures to address COVID-19 cases spike in western provinces

Havana, August 7 (RHC) -- Cuba’s temporary working group for the prevention and control of the new coronavirus approved Thursday several measures to address the occurrence of local transmission events in the western part of the country.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz insisted on the need for the population to act with discipline; to maintain physical isolation and the obligatory use of masks, as well as to strictly comply with all established health measures, especially in public and recreational spaces.

Havana Governor Reinaldo Garcia Zapata said that some twenty measures would be implemented in the capital starting Saturday.

They include limiting citizen mobility and urban transportation until 11:00 p.m. and restricting working hours of restaurants, nightclubs, and bars to 9:00 p.m.

Regarding Artemisa, authorities decided to return that province to the second phase of the recovery stage of COVID-19, except the municipality of Bauta.

The temporary working group also approved a set of measures to regulate transport between the five provinces in western Cuba: Havana, Artemisa, Pinar del Río, Mayabeque, and Matanzas, aimed at reducing to the minimum mobility between those territories, as well as between them and the rest of the country.

As part of this decision, 24-hour checkpoints between these provinces will enforce the new regulations controlling traffic in and out of the provinces.