{"id":238970,"date":"2021-05-14T16:32:22","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T20:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=238970"},"modified":"2021-05-14T16:32:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T20:32:22","slug":"havana-between-more-infections-and-vaccinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/coronavirus\/havana-between-more-infections-and-vaccinations\/","title":{"rendered":"Havana, between more infections and vaccinations"},"content":{"rendered":"

If someone from abroad were to walk the streets of <\/span>Havana<\/span><\/a> today, they would probably not be able to believe that the city is going through its most complex epidemiological situation of the entire pandemic. That every day an average of more than 600 new infections are diagnosed\u2014more than half of those in all of Cuba\u2014and several deaths due to <\/span>COVID-19<\/span><\/a>. That is not the gloomy panorama the city reflects, what people\u2019s faces reflect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the dire statistics that are reported every morning, the continuous calls from the authorities and the protocols established to stop the infections, even when vaccination\u2014by way of massive intervention\u2014has been underway since this Wednesday, the Cuban capital is living a kind of reality limbo that seems to contradict all of the above. Although far from doing so, it reinforces it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Photo:
Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is an explosive cocktail that, almost miraculously, has not caused an even worse health outbreak; a scenario in which exhaustion and precariousness, the lack of risk perception and exigency, the irresponsibility of many and the indiscipline of many others, the accumulated need and stress, the spread of the most contagious strains of the coronavirus and also, why not, the optimism instilled by the promising <\/span>Cuban vaccines<\/span><\/a>, the desire to turn the page once and for all that, in many cases, translates into carelessness and indolence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, with many less sick and dead, the atmosphere was different. The people, at least the majority, looked tenser, more worried, but now it\u2019s as if they\u2019ve resigned themselves or lost their fear of the pandemic,\u201d said Arturo who, like many Havanans these days, spends a good part of his days looking for food for his family.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe problem, journalist, is that we have been in this for a long time, and the situation is very complicated with what you know,\u201d he makes a gesture with his right hand as if he were going to put something in his mouth. \u201cLook right now what is happening with the bread, which does not look good at all, not to mention the pork or rice, which when they appear have prices through the roof. With that noise, you can\u2019t stay at home with crossed arms. Now then, because of that, you don\u2019t have to be close to people in the queues or wearing a face mask in the wrong way, as many do out there. I don\u2019t understand that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Arturo, who looks to be in his fifties and tells me that, despite the pandemic, he continues to fix washing machines and other equipment at home to \u201cmake a living,\u201d is one of dozens and dozens of people, mostly older, who wait to buy at the state bakery on Avenida Carlos III, in mid-morning. At that time, the traffic on the well-known Havana artery is remarkable, despite being a weekday during working hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

People walk in all directions, alone, in groups, in pairs. Some talk; others eat or smoke, with the mask under their mouth. Many queues outside shops in the area, such as the busy Carlos III shopping mall, which sells much of its products in freely convertible currency. Or they take a look at one of the private stalls that multiply along the avenue. There are people at the bus stops and people on the buses that go by and stop, in some cases with more passengers than they should, in accordance with the officially established restrictions for public transportation in Havana. Nobody seems to notice it. Nobody looks alarmed by what is happening around them.<\/span><\/p>\n