14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 23 January 2022 — Cuba’s Ministry of Culture has postponed the Havana International Book Fair to the month of April, due to the rebound of covid-19 on the Island since the arrival of the omicron variant. The thirtieth edition of the event has had to be postponed according to institutional sources.
“The measure responds to the epidemiological situation facing the region, where the largest number of visitors to this cultural event come from each year. Related to this, it has been taken into account that this important event is the one with the largest popular attendance of those sponsored by Cuba’s cultural institutions,” the note points out.
It also explains that the postponement was made in response to a proposal from the Cuban Book Institute.
This year, Mexico is the Guest of Honor Country and the original dates announced were February 10 to 20. With the change in date, the dates for the book fairs in all the provinces of the country will also be changed.
At the close of this Friday, January 21, Cuba there were 3,401 new cases of covid-19 and five deaths, as detailed this Saturday by the Ministry of Health in its daily report. A week ago the country exceeded one million cases of coronavirus since the first contagion was detected in March 2020.
In November, given the improvement in the epidemiological situation, schools were reopened and international tourism, a key sector for the economy, was reactivated. Some services were also reactivated and cultural activities in cinemas and theaters resumed. However, in recent weeks some events have had to be canceled or postponed.
The National Meeting of Troubadours Longina Canta a Corona also postponed its twenty-fifth edition due to the current incidence of the pandemic. The event was scheduled for January 6 to 9, but all face-to-face activities were postponed until further notice.
According to official data, more than 87% of the country’s total population — 11.2 million inhabitants — have received the complete schedule of three doses of one of the three Cuban-made vaccines against covid-19: Abdala, Soberana 02 and Sovereign Plus.
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