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Covid-19 and the blockade: the effect on Cuba
Cuban healthcare is among the best in the world, but today its vaccination campaign is in a race against time against the highly contagious delta variant — and the blockade, writes MARC VANDEPITTE
A man waits in an almost empty pharmacy amid the Covid-19 pandemic in Old Havana, July 2021

CUBA is experiencing difficult times. As a result of the tightened US economic blockade and the loss of tourism because of Covid-19, the country is going through a deep economic slump. Many basic products such as food and medicine have become scarce.  

As if that weren’t enough, the coronavirus crisis is now hitting particularly hard. So much so that the health system, which is among the best in the world, is in danger of being overwhelmed by the pandemic.

Through social media, doctors have recently sounded the alarm. They point to shortages of medicine, oxygen, and other materials to battle the current Covid-19 outbreak. As was the case in most Western countries during the corona peaks, medical staff in Cuba are exhausted.

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