Recent COVID-19 surge in Cuba is four times worse than global positivity rate

Cuba has called back all its doctors and nurses working abroad as the country is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases. Several hotels have been converted into isolation centres to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. The medical infrastructure of Cuba is overwhelmed with rapidly growing corona patients. The new patients are associated with the Delta variant, and the country is facing worse outbreaks in its history.

While previously Cuba managed to contain infections for most of its time, but the recent surge has made its medical structure crumble.

As per the two monthly weekly tallies of cases, the country is experiencing ten times more cases than the world average. Every one in five people receiving the COVID-19 test is testing positive. The World Health Organization said the positivity rate is four times the global positivity rate of 5%.

Reuters reported that the seven-day average for confirmed COVID-19 deaths is around 52 per million residents, which is six times the world average. Some believe the real number is possibly much higher because there could be possibly many undiagnosed cases.

Ana Iris Diaz, a professor at the University of the central Cuban city of Santa Clara, wrote on Facebook," I waited in a queue for over 20 hours, people are succumbing in corridors,"

Diaz said an elderly woman died without medical assistance and an RT-PCR test after four days of waiting.

Cuba's Communist government blames the United States of America for imposing sanctions and said its barriers caused a delay in vaccine roll-out.

Cuban activists continue to complain of shortages of medical supplies and vaccines amid the rising number of coronavirus cases. Pharmacies are out of Azithromycin, an antibiotic drug widely used to treat COVID patients.

Azithromycin, which usually costs 16 pesos, is now selling for 3600 pesos, roughly $150 in the black market.

The Cuban made vaccine is being used to inoculate the people, only a quarter of 11.3 million residents are vaccinated. The regions with a larger number of vaccinated individuals are showing lesser signs of new clusters.