Cuba has enabled a dozen hotels to receive foreigners and citizens arriving in the country who must comply with mandatory isolation to prevent the new corona virus. The island is facing an outbreak of infections that forced authorities to re-impose restrictions.
Half of the facilities prepared for this six-day, five-night quarantine are in Havana, and the rest are scattered across the country, explains Isabel Ocampo of the state-run travel agency Havanatour.
Amid the resurgence of business that started in late December after the airports opened in November and became critical in January, the government ordered mandatory isolation in a mixed modality: paid hotels for foreigners and citizens who choose to, and free centers only for its citizens, but with fewer amenities.
Hotels can cost anywhere from $ 40 to $ 100 a night and passengers cannot leave their rooms.
“The facility is completely filled with these types of customers. We are of all nationalities, ”says Omar Milián, director of the four-star Comodoro hotel of the Cubanacan chain. On Thursday, for example, the Commodore had a hundred customers in quarantine.
“For me, I am not traveling for tourism but for work, it is a very good option,” Madeline Hernández, a 49-year-old Cuban who works for a foreign company, told a group of journalists on a tour of these facilities. .
Hernández arrived from the Dominican Republic on Tuesday. She was transferred from the airport to the Comodoro and although a national company, her company paid for her stay. He also has internet – a limited service on the island – that allowed him to keep working.
The island has a protocol that consists of one test on arrival and another after five days, but in recent weeks it has begun to require a negative COVID-19 certificate for boarding and cutting flights from countries like the United States, Panama and Mexico.
Cuba went from days with fewer than 10 cases and cities with months with no reported infections to more than 1,000 new patients per day after opening. Authorities recognized that a major source of contamination was the arrival of Cuban emigrants, especially from the United States, who came to visit their families.
When the pandemic started in March 2020, Cuba canceled commercial flights, closed schools and stopped public transport. He also started a door-to-door screening campaign, forcing the positives to isolate themselves in state institutions. The economy came to a standstill and ended 2020 with an 11% decline in gross domestic product.
As things improved, air transport was gradually reopened, leading to a resurgence.
Classes are currently suspended, transport is limited and there is a night clock in some cities, such as Havana.
Friday, Dr. Francisco Durán, the island’s director of epidemiology, reported 36,595 cases and more than 200 deaths since March.