After a hundred days of pandemic in Cuba, the Newspaper Tribuna de Havana noted: “‘Discipline, isolation, compliance with hygienic-health measures and control, we will be allowed to cut off the transmission of COVID-19 and reach the first phase of recovery’, emphasized the president of the Provincial Defense Council (CDP) of Havana , Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar”. [1] Reading these words immediately raises a number of questions: were these issues not convened from the outset and for this the State put in force a series of measures?, what happened then in the capital? Later, the same work states: “In turn, he demanded those who have the responsibility, to enforce the provisions for a municipality in isolation”. And again the words make us think: what were these managers doing to this day?
During the time lived in an epidemiological situation, just looking out into the street for a few minutes was enough to see the atmosphere prevailing in it. Social indiscipline, the breaking of isolation and the constant violation of health measures have prevailed. This time the media has been showing it almost every day. No one has been oblivious to this, hence the greatest concerns about such approaches.
Without ignoring the efforts made, it should be noted that these are not times of rhetoric. If Havana has come to this day in the state we all know, it has been because of neglect, lack of control and lack of awareness of territorial characteristics. Everything indicates that it has not been known to operate on it and has been a long way from the required rigor. The capital does not work, nor can it be directed like any other provincial head of the country, it has its own complexities. If you do not go down to the basic social structure, which is the neighborhood, stem cell of citizen identity, and work there, every effort will be in vain. The People’s Council is only an organization derived from the Administrative Political Division, has no social influence because it has no historical root in the demographic conglomerate of the neighborhoods, which operate on its indigenous sociological matrix.
Being the tail of the pandemic and its epicenter, generates concern and questioning, especially the management of territorial governance. It becomes clear that there are still links of the chain that are not well closed and this creates uncertainty, at least that is what it feels like when you continue reading the work of Raquel Sierra in Havana Tribune: “In turn, it oriented to reinforce the measures in all territories, with an emphasis on Centro Habana, Old Havana , Revolution Square, Beach, Cerro and La Lisa”. It is not a question of seeing the matter as six municipalities among the fifteen that the city has. This means 40% of all of them, it is an extensive part of the capital northern edge, almost the entire historical urban area of Havana, where the highest density of its population lies. If it needs to be reinforced, it is a sign that the implemented had great deficiencies. How is it possible that no one could have known about this?
It goes on to say: “He called for the implementing of actions from Health, political work, control, control, the functions of the National Revolutionary Police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office.” Was none of that implemented? Of course, but with the exception of the actions of Health, which by its own organization reaches the doctor of the family, in the depths of the neighborhoods, everything else has shone by its absence, at least in Centro Habana, territory in which the author of these lines has been submerged. The actions have been halted at the level of the macro structure of the People’s Council.
Two new shadows add to the current panorama, the dengue and the cyclonic season that seems to be very active. In the same newspaper, but in another work of the same author, Orestes Llanes Mestre, coordinator of control and control of the Government of the capital noted: “At present, cases of dengue have already been reported in our country and, although the figure is not high, it is necessary to remember the extraordinary adaptability of mosquitoes to urban centers […] In the current context, in addition to the epidemiological situation related to the new coronavirus, the alert lies in the control of dengue.” [2] Undoubtedly, there is concern, if the management of the pandemic has proved complicated, tackling the conjugation of these three problems would be very complex.
At the meeting of the Temporary Working Group for the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 on 22 June, “the pass from Matanzas Province to recovery” was announced. [3] The decision was made even though that territory had not reported cases for only eight days. However, it was said that “it manages to meet the five indicators defined by the Ministry of Public Health”, now only Havana remains without moving on to the first stage of recovery.
Unfortunately, the cuban capital continues to report cases and remains distant from the five indicators established by the Ministry of Public Health to move on to another phase. The haste cannot be a risk factor for tomorrow, if we come to this day, for multiple reasons, with the situation we have in the capital, the most sensible thing will be to rectify coordinates, do things the right way and not rest until we fulfill in a real and reliable way with the task of defeating SARS-CoV-2, otherwise any outcome will be forced and we will never remove the nasobuco from the face.
[1] Sierra, Rachel. (2020). “Shorten time to the first phase”. Havana: Havana Grandstand, June 21, No.25, Year XL, p.1.
[2] Sierra, Rachel. (2020). “Winning the Battle to covid – 19 and Dengue”. Havana: Havana Grandstand, June 21, No.25, Year XL, p.5.
[3] ( https://www.presidencia.gob.cu/es/noticias/matanzas-a-la-recuperacion-la-habana-con-buen-paso/)
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