Cuba isolates 13 U.S. travelers over coronavirus fears, but says country is ‘open’ for tourists
Thirteen travelers from the United States have been isolated in Cuban hospitals and watched for symptoms of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, according to Cuba’s health minister.
In a government meeting on Friday, José Ángel Portal Miranda, said that 149 people were isolated in several hospitals, including 65 foreigners and 84 Cubans. The details were not readily reported by the official media, but a video clip of the meeting was later shown on state television.
In addition to “foreigners” from the United States, the minister said that 20 Italians, four Spaniards, four Mexicans, and three Canadians were also under observation in hospitals, along with travelers from China, Germany, Argentina, Ecuador, Sweden, France, Australia, Belgium, Great Britain, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Nicaragua and Panama.
The minister did not clarify whether the travelers from the United States were Cuban-American or what cities they departed from.
On Saturday, the number of people under medical observation rose to 259 — 90 foreigners and 169 Cubans — but the government did not disclose the nationalities of the new foreign patients.
A spokesperson from the State Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs told the Miami Herald the U.S. embassy in Havana continues to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Cuba, but declined giving further details citing “reasons of confidentiality.”
As of Monday, the government has not reported new cases of COVID-19. So far, it has only reported four cases, three Italian tourists from Lombardy and one Cuban. One of the Italian patients has been classified as “critical but stable” and needed a mechanical ventilator, Cuban official media reported Monday afternoon.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez last week asked the federal government to cancel flights to Cuba, saying that the island’s government is not transparent with data about the spread of the coronavirus.
Cuba promotes tourism despite global pandemic
As most Latin American governments shut down borders and ordered quarantines to limit social contact during the weekend, Cuban officials were sending the message that the country was open and was a “safe” destination for tourists.
“Clients who decide of their own free will to come to Cuba are welcomed,” said Barbara Díaz, director of marketing for the Ministry of Tourism in a press conference. “Our social function is to receive tourists, give them assistance ... and demonstrate that Cuba is a safe country in all aspects.”
The government has not canceled flights from Italy and other hot spot countries. However, Italy and Canada, two top markets for tourists traveling to Cuba, enforced some restrictions on foreign travel.
Officials from the Ministry of Public Health said that the country maintains health screening at airports and hotels and that “family” doctors were carrying out “active inquiries” to find possible positive cases.
The Cuban press showed photos of health personnel screening travelers at the airport, wearing cloth masks that experts say do not protect against the virus.
The government has also urged the population to make their own cloth masks.
Beyond canceling large concerts and better cleaning in schools and public transport, daily life on the island is business as usual, far from the extraordinary circumstances that millions of people are now facing in many countries where bars, restaurants, and social gatherings are mostly banned, and citizens are told to stay home, trying to prevent the virus from spreading further.
Many Cubans turned to social media to express their disbelief.
“The entire world seems to have understood the severity of a pandemic for which we have zero immunity,” wrote Cuban engineer Eduardo Sánchez on Twitter. “When an outbreak gets out of control, it will be too late to limit movement; it will result in an economic and health disaster for Cuba.”
Citing a report on Islamic State recommending its followers not travel to Europe to avoid getting infected, Cuban entrepreneur Camilo Condis wrote on Twitter: “Even terrorists are afraid of #COVID-19, and the Cuban government is promoting European tourism to Cuba. This is already the height of absurdity.”
A German researcher, who asked not to be named because she was currently in Cuba, was worried that “cosmetic measures” would not be enough, and that the virus would spread rapidly if the government does not cancel flights from hot-spot countries, “given the lack of medicines in the island, and a large elderly population. “
“At first sight, it looks like all is under control, but the reality is that the government is not taking appropriate measures given what we now know from Italy, Spain, and China, regarding the importance of radical preventative measures and social distancing,” the researcher said.
“In the long run, it will also be financially better for the country than overloading a resource-weak health system,” the researcher added. But the government is only taking “cosmetic measures” and is “prioritizing tourism dollars in the short term over the health of the population.”
The new pandemic comes at the worst time for the Cuban economy, affected by the crisis in Venezuela, its main ally, and sanctions by the United States. In 2019, tourism decreased by almost 20 percent. The population faces a shortage of hygiene products and medications for chronic diseases such as diabetes. The water service is intermittent in many places.
The Ministry of Health said it has 20 drugs in stock that are used in the treatment against COVID-19, including Interferon Alpha 2B, which Cuban officials claim has been used in the treatment of patients in China.
On Sunday, the government reported that it had sent a “brigade” of doctors to Venezuela, where the Nicolás Maduro government decreed a quarantine in seven states, including the capital, Caracas.
The Cuban ambassador to Italy, José Carlos Rodríguez, also confirmed that a Lombardy health system official, Giulio Gallera, asked the island’s government to send medical personnel to that region in northern Italy, the one most affected by the outbreak, which already exceeds 24,000 cases.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 2:18 PM.