USA Blocks Aid Deliveries Despite The Coronavirus Pandemic
Monday, 6 April 2020, 5:34 pm
United States has prevented a Chinese aid shipment of medical supplies to Cuba to combat the novel coronavirus. The North American transport company withdrew from the contract “at the last minute”, reports the Cuban ambassador in Beijing, Carlos Miguel Pereira. This is despite the fact that the number of people infected in Cuba has risen to 233, and six people have died as a result of Covid-19 disease.
On 22nd March the Chinese entrepreneur and founder of the “Alibaba” trading platform announced an aid shipment of two million respiratory masks, 400,000 reagents for PCR diagnosis and 104,000 respirators for Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuba should have benefited from this delivery. However, due to the existing blockade laws of the United States, the US company that was commissioned with the transport dropped out at the last minute. Cuba’s ambassador to China called the action “illegal, unjust and arbitrary”. For Cuba, “things will become more and more complicated,” Pereira said.
After the island enabled the British-Norwegian cruise ship “MS Braemar” to evacuate people infected with coronavirus in March, the island made the headlines again this week with a humanitarian aid operation: a Condor aircraft coming from Nicaragua was allowed to land in the eastern Cuban city of Holguín after the Boeing, which was primarily loaded with returning tourists from Germany, had previously been turned away by other countries in the region. The aircraft was finally able to refuel at the “Frank País” airport in the eastern Cuban city of Holguín before crossing the Atlantic.
Cuba has also been affected by the global pandemic since the 11th March. Last Tuesday, the country was closed to tourism. Since then, only Cuban citizens have been allowed to enter the country, and after entering are required to be quarantined for two weeks. Schools and universities have been closed, and people are urged to stay at home and only leave their homes for urgent errands, wearing face masks. Meanwhile, 233 infected people have been reported and 2,320 people are in quarantine.
More:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2004/S00039/usa-blocks-aid-deliveries-despite-the-coronavirus-pandemic.htm
Also posted in LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142464140
