Instead of tourists, the Hotel Ciego de Avila will hold up
to 240 low-risk pediatric patients, officials say, while the Las Canas Motel
will have 53 beds for pregnant women with the coronavirus.
They are also ordering isolation of whole households when a virus
is detected.
“The people are very frightened. Every day, more sick, more
deaths — a relative, a neighbor, a friend," said Mayi Del Valle, a
49-year-old library worker from the town of Ceballos in the province, speaking
by phone Wednesday. “There are people treating COVID in their houses based on
herbs.”
Cuba's national director of epidemiology, Francisco Durán,
said Wednesday that the province accounted for 23 of the 98 new deaths from
COVID-19 recorded the previous day in the country of 11 million people — the
nation's highest death toll yet in the pandemic.
The province of some 430,000 people had about twice as many
deaths as in the capital of Havana, a city of 2 million.
The west-central province of Matanzas, famed for the beach
resort Varadero, was the center of infection last month, but the wave there
seems to have receded.
Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia and Health Minister
José Ángel Portales were sent to Ciego de Avila, about 400 kilometers (240
miles) east of Havana, and government news media said official were sending
more ambulances and 100 bicitaxis, which can be used for logistical support.
Since the start of the pandemic, Cuba has recorded 3,091
deaths and 422,614 confirmed infections, a huge share of them just in recent
weeks. The country had been highly successful in keeping the virus at bay last
year, but cases began shooting up after a brief period of relaxed controls at
the start of 2021.
The Pan American Health Organization also expressed concern
Wednesday about rising infections in Cuba.
“This is due to the delta variant, which has been reported
by authorities in various places in the country," said Ciro Ugarte,
director of health emergencies for the organization, during a news conference
in Washington.
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