An Outbreak of Covid-19 In Santa Marta Puts the Construction of Hotels In Varadero On Hold

Construction workers in two camps in Santa Marta remain in quarantine. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 20 September 2020 — An outbreak of Covid-19 in two camps of the Constructora Hicacos in Santa Marta, in the Matanzas municipality of Cárdenas, has put the construction of hotels in the tourist center of Varadero on hold.

In a report by Cuban Television, it was learned that, given the new source of infections, the Government of Matanzas decided “to stop all construction works in the Varadero area; that is, the construction of the Oasis, Mar del Sur, which it is where the greatest number of cases is identified,” said Bella Canosa Besú, director of the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology of Cárdenas.

The state media referred to the situation but without specifying the number of infections. However, in the official report of the Ministry of Public Health of this September 19, 14 new contagions in Cárdenas were reported from a previously confirmed case, for which 23 more people are being kept under medical surveillance.

The information was confirmed on the Facebook page of the local newspaper Girón, where it was stated that “14 positive cases were diagnosed in the Ramón Martínez de Santa Marta Health Area, Bachichi Camp.”

The social interaction that construction work implies and the displacement of workers in the communities where their hostels are located is a health risk that has increased epidemiological surveillance in Santa Marta, said Canosa Besú.

Santa Marta, located a few kilometers from the tourist center of Varadero, is the community that has registered the worst numbers of infections in the province. At the end of last week the Provincial Defense Council ordered the establishment of a quarantine in three new areas of that popular council area.

So far, 432 construction workers remain isolated, building number five in Villa Nicaragua with 34 apartments and 102 inhabitants, and a block from the demarcation in which 22 homes are included, official media reported. In addition, other areas of the Cárdenas municipality that have restrictive measures include the Fructuoso Rodríguez district, the La Marina neighborhood and the Humberto Álvarez popular council area.

This newspaper reported last week that the streets of Santa Marta remained deserted since the quarantine was decreed on August 27 after 58 days without a single positive case for Covid-19. However, the measures limiting access to the village are not very strict. A public health worker is posted at the entrance, accompanied by a policeman, and those from other places must only give their names and have their temperatures taken.

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