Havana imposes curfew while schools reopen elsewhere in Cuba

Pupils returned to school throughout much of Cuba on Tuesday after more than five months, though not in Havana where restrictions including a curfew went into effect due to a surge in coronavirus infections.

Authorities deemed the outbreak contained enough across most of the island to be able to restart classes as long as pupils wore face masks, disinfected their hands upon arrival at school and sat at physically distanced desks.

In Havana and municipalities in four other provinces, classes will be held online until outbreaks are under control.

Cuba has credited its free community-based health system and strict isolation of the sick and their contacts for preventing rapid spread of the virus on the Caribbean’s largest island, as it has elsewhere in the region.

The country of 11 million inhabitants has reported just over 4,000 cases and 95 deaths from Covid-19.

But infections rebounded in the capital in early August and spread elsewhere after restrictions were eased in late June.

While some large outbreaks have been traced to a religious gathering, state institutions and a construction site, analysts said the origin of many new cases was unknown and worrisome.

New measures in Havana on Tuesday were designed to prevent movement of people such as traffic restrictions, a ban on shopping outside of one’s neighbourhood and limits on interprovincial travel.

For the first time since March, a curfew was imposed in the capital, requiring residents to stay off the streets from 7pm-5am.

Many Cubans welcomed the new measures in the hope they would curb contagion though some complained they interfered with helping elderly relatives in other neighbourhoods or obtaining goods amid widespread shortages.

Scarcity in Cuba has worsened during the pandemic, which has cut off key tourism revenue and increased shipping costs. — Reuters