Help us keep OnCuba alive Minister of Economy and Planning Alejandro Gil Fernández assured in his appearance in the Mesa Redonda television program that the changes approved this Thursday during an extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers, known as “economic-social strategy to boost the economy and deal with the world crisis caused by COVID-19,” are aimed at eliminating the obstacles that operate in the economy, but maintaining and defending the concept of planning. He said that this strategy was built on a set of principles that he listed as follows: keep planning centralized; defend national production and banish the import mentality; regulate the market; complementarity of economic actors; revitalizing role of domestic demand for the economy; give greater management autonomy to the business sector; implement key aspects, approved and pending, mainly with respect to the forms of management; encourage competitiveness, savings, motivation for work and efficiency; and an active environmental policy in harmony with the country’s regulations. He emphasized that the main focus is on food production, where he identified the need to eliminate many subjective problems related to financing structures, the flexibility of marketing and the defense of the principle of collections and payments relations. He said that...

Help us keep OnCuba alive The Cuban government announced this Thursday that it will abolish the tax on the U.S. dollar, which had been the complaint of many Cubans, both those who send remittances and those who receive them, especially from the United States. The suppression of this tax, in force for 15 years, is intended to encourage the purchase of goods freely convertible currency in state-run commercial establishments. It seeks to raise more foreign currency at a time when Cuba has received a severe blow to its main sources of income, particularly tourism, as a result of the current international situation and the increase in the U.S. embargo. Its elimination will come into effect on Monday July 20 and is part of a package of measures, many of them identified in previous programmatic documents, but slowed down or not carried out to date, that seeks to alleviate the complex economic situation the island is going through, aggravated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Also part of the package is the opening of new stores for retail sale in freely convertible currency in 72 establishments throughout the country and which will also begin their services next Monday, according to...

Help us keep OnCuba alive here Next Monday all of Cuba, except for Havana and its neighboring province of Mayabeque, will enter the third and last stage of the post-coronavirus pandemic reopening, although the borders will continue to be closed until the situation improves in the capital, where contagions are still being registered. Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero reported this Thursday that until further notice Havana will remain in phase 1, which includes the reestablishment of urban public transportation, the reopening with limited capacity of restaurants and bars and access to beaches, among other measure. https://twitter.com/PresidenciaCuba/status/1283986182947340290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1283986182947340290%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fmenos-en-la-habana-y-mayabeque-cuba-arranca-con-la-ultima-fase-de-reapertura%2F The province of Mayabeque, for its part, will continue in phase 2, which expands access to other public places, allows the resumption of some cultural activities and international tourism limited to several keys on the Cuban coast and without contact with the local population. In the rest of the island, there have been no new cases of COVID-19 for more than 28 days, which correspond to two incubation periods of the disease, so as of Monday they are ready to move on to phase three, the Cuban prime minister said in a televised appearance. Some of them have even been more than seventy days...

Help us keep OnCuba alive The four new infections registered by the Cuban health authorities in the last 24 hours were detected in Havana, which, together with Mayabeque, is the other territory that does not pass on to the third phase announced by the Cuban government in its plan to return to normality. In his morning press conference, Dr. Francisco Durán reaffirmed there were no deaths from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and that all the new infections correspond to Cubans; all are contacts of confirmed cases; three women, one man and three of them were asymptomatic. https://twitter.com/MINSAPCuba/status/1284114161031675905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1284114161031675905%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fcuatro-nuevos-positivos-a-la-covid-19-en-cuba-distribuidos-en-cuatro-municipios-habaneros%2F The municipalities where they were detected are: La Lisa, Boyeros, 10 de Octubre and Arroyo Naranjo. According to Durán, “all were related to outbreaks located on previous days.” By age groups: three are between 20 and 50, and the remaining individual is over 60 years old; 15 patients were discharged, to bring the number of recovered to 2,300. Only one person was reported seriously ill, a 49-year-old woman residing in Cerro. For yesterday’s diagnosis, 3,179 tests were performed; 2,131 of them in Havana. To date, Cuba has processed a total of 220,739 tests since the start of the pandemic on March 11. At midnight...

Help us keep OnCuba alive here The Cuban economy will fall 8% in 2020 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). In a report that updates the figures expected for the region this year as a consequence of COVID-19, ECLAC placed Cuba in the group of countries most affected, along with Venezuela (-6%), Peru (-13%), Argentina (-10.5%), Brazil (-9.2%), Mexico (-9%), Ecuador (-9%), El Salvador (-8.6%), Nicaragua (-8.3%) and Chile (-7.9%). The decline forecast for the island by ECLAC last April was 3.7%, but more than two months later the forecast for the fall has doubled, despite the fact that Cuba has managed to contain the disease and has already started de-escalation in search of economic recovery. In May, the Cuban government had recognized the negative impact of the pandemic on its economy, already hit by other factors such as the U.S. embargo and the recent measures of the Trump administration, the crisis of its ally Venezuela and internal inefficiency. Then, the Council of Ministers approved readjusting the economic plan of the year to “lead the country more objectively.” “An economy with zero tourism and an increase...

Help us keep OnCuba alive According to the Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) news agency, a strategy to try to decongest public transportation in the city during the so-called “rush hours” was presented this Wednesday at the Havana Provincial Defense Council (CDP) and to contribute to social distancing in the first post-COVID-19 stage. Minister of Transportation Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila said that although reinforcements had been organized so far and they had resorted to alternatives to provide a service consistent with that first phase, Havana was working with less than 600 buses, which is why it was necessary to evaluate other measures to avoid crowding. Among the possible alternatives is, he stressed, changing the hours of movements of entities―services and health, for example. Initially, it is planned to implement them in education, higher education, commerce, gastronomy, health and transportation. It was also announced that Havana has around 820,000 workers, and that about 644,000 belong to the state sector, so it is essential that the agencies contribute to reorganizing work activities. https://youtu.be/zlYeQWtzGXM The deputy governor of Havana, Yanet Hernández, insisted on the need to continue promoting telework and distance work in order to reduce the number of people who need to go...

Help us keep OnCuba alive Two new infections and no death has been the balance of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours for Cuba, according to what Dr. Francisco Durán, national director of epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP). said this morning. Both cases are Cuban, a 28-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman, both contacts of confirmed and asymptomatic cases. https://twitter.com/MINSAPCuba/status/1283756263084630017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1283756263084630017%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fcuba-dos-contagios-por-covid-19-hoy-ambos-de-la-habana%2F For their diagnosis, 2,761 tests were made throughout the country, according to the specialist during his usual daily press conference. A total of 251 people remain hospitalized and 130 are under primary healthcare surveillance in their homes. Help us keep OnCuba alive

Help us keep OnCuba alive here A study on climate change carried out by Cuban scientists estimates that at least 14 human settlements would disappear by 2050 in Cuba, while another 100 would suffer partial damages. Scientific research indicates that rising sea levels could cause the disappearance of more than 14,100 homes located in coastal communities, which would imply the displacement of around 41,300 people in the next 30 years. The urgent need to forecast the impacts of inland sea penetrations more accurately led a group of specialists from the central and eastern region of Cuba to create the “Metodología para el estudio climático de las inundaciones costeras en Cuba. Aplicación en la costa norte de la región central y orientales” (Methodology for the climatic study of coastal floods in Cuba. Application in the north coast of the central and eastern region), published in the Revista Cubana de Meteorología. For the study, the scientists used data compiled by the island’s meteorological stations of coastal areas, located in Cayo Coco, Cabo Lucrecia (Holguín) and Punta de Maisí (Guantánamo), according to MSc. Orlando Córdova, quoted by the newspaper Invasor. Other instruments used in the methodology were the synoptic maps of the surface...

Help us keep OnCuba alive U.S. researchers reported that the first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the United States produced the expected responses in the immune system. Now the vaccine is on its way to the most important phase, which will begin around July 27: the study of 30,000 people to test whether it really is strong enough to protect against the coronavirus. “No matter how you look at it, this is good news,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press. https://twitter.com/NIH/status/1283149805162618881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1283149805162618881%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fmundo%2Feeuu-primera-vacuna-contra-la-covid-19-muestra-resultados-alentadores%2F The experimental vaccine has been developed at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by Moderna Inc. The volunteers developed what are known as neutralizing antibodies in the bloodstream―key molecules to block infections―at levels comparable to those found in people who survived COVID-19, the research team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. “This is a basic component needed to move forward with trials that could determine if the vaccine protects against infection,” said Dr. Lisa Jackson of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle, who was in charge of the study. There were no serious side effects. But more than half of the study participants reported reactions similar to those...

Help us keep OnCuba alive Cuba woke up this Wednesday with six new infections and no deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, according to Dr. Francisco Durán in his morning press conference. The Cuban epidemiologist also added that all were Cuban, contacts of confirmed case, and four were asymptomatic at the time of their diagnosis. https://twitter.com/MINSAPCuba/status/1283391659460485120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1283391659460485120%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fcuba-hoy-con-seis-nuevos-casos-de-covid-19%2F “Two important factors of this disease, the contacts of confirmed cases and the asymptomatic ones,” Durán warned when referring to these data. This time there were more men than women diagnosed (4-2) on a day when two patients were discharged and only one person was reported seriously ill. By age group, five are between 40 and 60 years old, and one was a minor: nine years old. There were 263 hospitalized patients, while 149 people were under primary healthcare surveillance. Yesterday 3,372 tests were studied throughout the country, with which Cuba has processed a total of 214,799; 2,438 of them have been positive. Help us keep OnCuba alive

Help us keep OnCuba alive Several areas of Havana with outbreaks of coronavirus and “under reinforced isolation measures” are no longer in phase 1 of the post-COVID-19 recovery along with the rest of the city, according to Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar , president of the Provincial Defense Council (CDP). In a meeting of that government body, reported on by the local press, Torres Iríbar noted that “the province in general is in phase 1” of the de-escalation, but that communities such as Los Sitios, Amistad, Pilar-Atarés and Lawton, where cases have been reported in recent days, are not in this phase, “but have gone back to a scenario of COVID-19 confrontation.” To these areas he also added a part of San Francisco de Paula, Cuatro Caminos del Cotorro and Lechuga-Marrero, in Arroyo Naranjo, the latter as a way of prophylaxis, taking into account its concomitance with the municipality of Cotorro and the province of Mayabeque, which recently have also registered cases. The president of the CDP said that “the guard cannot be lowered,” and that the established measures have to be demanded and controlled by the local authorities. He affirmed that “the aspiration is to go to phase 2,” but...

Help us keep OnCuba alive here According to the health authorities, data related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the last 24 hours in Cuba are as follows: 3,300 tests carried out, four new infections, 221 hospitalizations, one seriously ill patient and no deaths. The new infections were all Cuban, contacts of confirmed cases, in which men predominate over women (3-1). https://twitter.com/MINSAPCuba/status/1283028535817506817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1283028535817506817%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fcuba-supera-otra-vez-las-3000-pruebas-y-diagnostica-cuatro-casos-de-covid-19%2F By age, the four belong to the range of between 40 and 60 years and they are from the Havana municipalities of Centro Habana, Habana del Este and Cotorro. For 18 consecutive days, the country does not report critically ill patients, according to Dr. Francisco Durán during his press conference, although he noted that one patient was reported seriously ill. As of midnight on July 13, 254 people were under primary healthcare surveillance. Cuba has processed a total of 211,427 tests, of which 2,432 have been positive. Help us keep OnCuba alive here

Help us keep OnCuba alive Just a few hours after the first cases of coronavirus were detected in Cuba four months ago, Dr. Francisco Durán, who became the face of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) in the fight against COVID-19, said in his already traditional morning appearances that it seemed the disease was infinite. It may be a simple comment in the midst of his usual presentation of data, but he accurately portrayed the serious problem this has become for humanity and, of course, for Cuba, since last March 11 Cubans started getting familiarized with a disease that, to date, has infected 2,426 people on the island. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez. Since then, the data has changed quite a bit. If the first positive cases were three Italian tourists passing through the colonial city of Trinidad, the new infections detected in recent weeks through PCR tests all correspond to Cubans, almost always related to other already detected cases. The irruption was dramatic. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared as a pandemic a disease that started in the Chinese province of Wuhan, later baptized as COVID-19 and caused by a virus already known to all: SARS-CoV-2. As the...

Help us keep OnCuba alive The Cuban drug Itolizumab, regularly used for the treatment of psoriasis and which has been shown to be effective within the Cuban protocol against COVID-19, received the approval of the Indian Regulatory Office of Medicines for the treatment in case of emergency of coronavirus patients with moderate to severe acute respiratory distress. The General Controller of Medicines, Dr. VG Somani, stated that the use of the medicine will be limited to Indian patients with severe symptoms, since said treatment is applied when cytokine release syndrome occurs, causing patients to present acute or severe respiratory distress. The approval of the Cuban monoclonal drug has been included since July 10 in India’s protocol, according to the PTI press agency, quoted in a note by the island’s Agencia Cubana de Noticias news agency. Despite being used for the first time against COVID-19, Itolizumab was in regular use in India for the treatment of psoriasis. For the use of the drug, each coronavirus patient must previously submit a written informed consent, said Dr. Somani. https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba/cuban-medicines-against-covid-19-ii/ India is currently one of the nations most affected by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, with an increase of tens of thousands of new cases in...

Help us keep OnCuba alive here The week started for Cuba with two new COVID-19 cases and no deaths, after the health authorities announced the update of the records for the last 24 hours . They are Cubans; one was a contact of a confirmed case and the other acquired the SARS-CoV-2 virus abroad. Both were asymptomatic. The person who acquired the disease abroad is a 67-year-old woman from Placetas, Villa Clara, who came from the United States. The other positive case is an 84-year-old man residing in Cerro. https://twitter.com/MINSAPCuba/status/1282664963534983168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1282664963534983168%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fcuba-informa-dos-positivos-a-la-covid-19-en-una-jornada-con-10-altas-medicas%2F Until midnight, 249 were hospitalized, while 233 people were under primary healthcare surveillance. Although the greatest number of daily tests is carried out in Havana, yesterday many were studied from all over the country, for a total of 2,978, according to the Ministry of Public Health. With them, the country has processed a total of 208,098 tests since March, of which 2,428 have been positive. Help us keep OnCuba alive here

In addition, at the close of Saturday there were no deaths and only one of the 79 active cases of COVID-19 on the island is in serious condition.

The concerts will take place on July 18 and 19, and among the participants will be Tom Morello, guitarist of the band Rage Against the Machine, Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Ozomatli, Arturo O’Farrill, Danny Glover, Michael Moore, Ron Perlman and Democratic Senator Barbara Lee, along with artists and groups from Cuba and other countries.

The Ministry of Public Health reported seven new infections. Five patients were discharged and two were reported in serious condition.

Help us keep OnCuba alive Cuba approved a differentiated social security regime for Cuban seafarers hired by foreign employers. The measure envisages 4,929 seafarers, hired through the state agency Selecmar, as salaried workers abroad. By virtue of this, they receive 100% of the salary agreed in the contract with their foreign employers, according to First Deputy Minister of Transportation Marta Oramas, quoted by the daily Granma. Decree Law 382/2019, published this Thursday in the Gaceta Oficial Ordinaria No. 48, also regulates the payment of taxes on personal income, in accordance with the characteristics and particularities of the activity they carry out. Entitled “On the Special Social Security Scheme for Seafarers,” the decree protects the seafarer in circumstances of total, temporary or permanent disability, as well as in old age, maternity and it protects their family in the case of death. “Affiliation to the special regime is mandatory and constitutes an indispensable requirement to receive social security benefits,” Hayde Franco, deputy director general of the National Institute of Social Security, told Granma. Seafarers who are part of the general system or any other special social security system are excluded from the new regulations, Franco explained. https://oncubanews.com/opinion/columnas/de-otro-costal/memorias-de-un-marinero-cubano-una-isla-de-espaldas-al-mar/ For her part, the director...

Help us keep OnCuba alive The European Union (EU) is carrying out several cooperation projects with Cuba, as part of the regional bloc’s support to other countries in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. This support is based on the EU Crisis Declaration on COVID-19, which seeks to adapt the ongoing cooperation to respond to the pandemic and its effects, prioritizing the health response, mitigation of social impact and economic reactivation. In the specific case of Cuba, the EU Delegation in coordination with the diplomatic representations of the member states of the regional mechanism has articulated a common effort called Team Europe, according to a source from the bloc. As part of this effort, resources from ongoing cooperation projects have been reoriented, “in order to respond immediately to the pandemic, in collaboration with implementing agencies and entities.” https://www.facebook.com/UEenCuba/posts/744223979663672 Following these guidelines, funds were reoriented from the AGROCADENAS (Support Program for the Strengthening of Agricultural and Livestock Chains at the local level) and BASAL (Environmental Bases for Local Food Sustainability) projects for the acquisition of protection and hygiene equipment, for a total amount 260,000 euros. In addition, 1.5 million euros from the SAS-Cuba program (local self-reliance supply for healthy eating) were...

Help us keep OnCuba alive COVID-19 has left 10 cases in the last 24 hours in Cuba, health authorities reported today. There were no deaths, no critical cases, and more than 3,000 tests were made in one day. Of the 10 new infections, all from Havana, nine were related to confirmed cases and the source of infection is not specified in only one individual. https://twitter.com/MINSAPCuba/status/1281577668627046401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1281577668627046401%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fcuba-suma-diez-nuevos-casos-de-coronavirus-todos-de-la-habana%2F Women predominate over men (8-2) and, of the total, seven were asymptomatic. By age groups, six classify between 20 and 60 years; two are over 60 and two are not yet 20 years old. As of midnight yesterday, 277 people were hospitalized and 219 were under primary healthcare surveillance. The country has processed a total of 198,675 tests, of which 2,413 have been positive. Help us keep OnCuba alive

Help us keep OnCuba alive Four infections, no deaths from COVID-19 and no cases of critically ill patients in the last 24 hours were reported today by the island’s health authorities, who highlighted the 3,091 tests made yesterday. In this regard, Dr. Francisco Durán, national director of epidemiology, highlighted the work of the laboratories in charge of evaluating the samples collected to thus diagnose the SARS-CoV-2 virus, whose work, he said, stops at no time. https://twitter.com/MINSAPCuba/status/1281213829347770370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1281213829347770370%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fcuba-supero-ayer-las-tres-mil-pruebas-diarias-y-cuatro-fueron-los-positivos-a-la-covid-19%2F The four cases today are Cubans, all contacts of confirmed cases. There were equal numbers of men and women, and of them two were asymptomatic. By age group, two patients classified between 40 and 50; one is over 50, and the remaining individual is under 20. Two patients were reported in serious condition today. With the two discharges on this day, 2,244 people have recovered in Cuba from the new coronavirus. At midnight on July 8, 225 patients were hospitalized and another 264 were under primary healthcare surveillance. The country has processed a total of 195,534 tests, of which 2,403 have been positive. Help us keep OnCuba alive

Help us keep OnCuba alive here The administration of President Donald Trump formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), although the withdrawal will not take effect until next year, which means that it could be rescinded by a new government or if circumstances were to change. The withdrawal notice, delivered this Monday, follows Trump’s promise made in late May to end the United States’ participation in the WHO, which he has criticized for its response to the coronavirus pandemic and for “bowing to China’s influence.” The decision was immediately criticized by health officials and opponents of the Trump government. https://oncubanews.com/mundo/ee-uu/ultima-hora-trump-anuncia-que-estados-unidos-rompe-relacion-con-la-oms/ The notification was sent to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and will take effect in a year, on July 6, 2021, the State Department and the UN reported this Tuesday. Guterres, as depositary of the WHO’s 1946 constitution, “is in the process of verifying with the World Health Organization whether all the conditions for such a withdrawal are met,” said his spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Under the terms of the withdrawal, the United States must meet its financial obligations to the WHO so that it can terminate the relationship. The United States, which is...

Help us keep OnCuba alive Prime Minister Manuel Marrero reported this Tuesday that Matanzas would go on to the second phase of the post-COVID-19 stage starting this Wednesday morning. In a videoconference of the Government’s Temporary Task Force against the pandemic, led by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Marrero said that “Matanzas has maintained sustained control of the disease and can move on to the second phase starting tomorrow.” The territory will join another 13 provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, which are already in this phase. Havana is still in the first. https://oncubanews.com/coronavirus/pasa-matanzas-manana-martes-a-la-primera-etapa-de-recuperacion-pos-covid-19/ In addressing the actions taken in that province, its governor, Mario Sabines, pointed out that for 23 consecutive days there have been no cases of coronavirus. He highlighted the work done to improve primary health care in the 13 municipalities in Matanzas, as well as to increase capacities in hospitals. He said that in Varadero, the largest and most important sun and beach destination in Cuba, 14 hotels are hosting national tourists, and that another three will join soon. Help us keep OnCuba alive

Help us keep OnCuba alive After Monday’s rebound, Cuban health authorities report that the number of patients with COVID-19 on the island are again restricted: four infections in the last 24 hours, another day without registering deaths or critically ill patients. Yesterday 2,844 tests were made, with which the country has processed to date a total of 192,443, of which 2,399 have been positive. All the infections today were recorded in women, from Havana, and all were asymptomatic at the time of their diagnosis. https://twitter.com/MINSAPCuba/status/1280851872354578432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1280851872354578432%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fcoronavirus-en-cuba-2844-muestras-y-cuatro-positivos-en-la-jornada-de-ayer%2F By age group, two of them are under 20 years old; one is in the group of 20 to 30, and another one of the 30 to 40. Two patients were discharged yesterday, and 2,242 have already recovered from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Four people were reported seriously ill. At midnight on July 7, 197 people were hospitalized and 214 were under primary healthcare surveillance. Help us keep OnCuba alive