The Quarantine Arrives in Santa Marta, a Community Near Varadero

Two Cubans with facemasks on a bicycle, one of the island’s means of transportation (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 28 August 2020 — The limitation in the entry and exit of people, the increase in medical control and the reorganization of work, are some of the measures experienced by about 15,000 inhabitants of the town of Santa Marta, a community very close to the Varadero spa , in Matanzas.

As of this Thursday, when the restrictive quarantine began in that area, the Government has tried to ensure that the population remains in their homes as long as possible by delivering “packages of basic necessities,” says a report in the official press.

A nurse from Santa Marta with Covid-19 infected 23 people with the epidemic to date, 15 of them in Cárdenas.

The Matanzas authorities said that the outbreak occurred when sanitary and security measures were violated in workplaces where workers with symptoms were allowed to enter, so it is not ruled out to quarantine manzanas with already confirmed cases of Covid-19, without this implying involving a whole neighborhood.

Up to 1,000 PCR tests will also begin in the next few hours to cover the popular council of Humberto Álvarez and selected areas in the city of Cárdenas.

To the isolation decreed in Santa Marta are added the quarantines of the Naranjal neighborhood, in the city of Matanzas, and that of Triunvirato, in Limonar. The province had 58 days without reporting a new case of Covid-19, between June and the first days of August. In the province this Friday there were 31 active cases, 24 of them residents of Cárdenas.

The community of Santa Marta, located at the entrance to Varadero, constitutes a area that supports the tourist activity of the famous spa. Many residents of the area work in the state hotel industry or rent their houses for tourism purposes.

This August 28, it was also reported in the official media that the start of the school year at the University of Matanzas was suspended until further notice because 706 students and 110 workers from that school reside in Cárdenas.

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