By Randy Alonso Falcón, director de Cubadebate

The apprehensions raised in some countries by the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, the US dirty campaign against the Russian Sputnik V and the confirmed refusal of the most powerful nations to let their pharmaceutical companies temporarily release the patents of their antidotes against COVID-19, have further strained the availability of vaccines and deepened the profound differences in the right to life between the powerful and the poor in this world.

Never before has a health emergency struck so many in so many places and in such a short space of time. COVID-19 has already affected more than 120 million people in the world and has caused the death of more than 2.6 million human beings.

Such a universal challenge warranted a global and coordinated response. But once again, in addition to the demands of the UN and the World Health Organization, nationalism, pettiness, the overwhelming power of transnational corporations and every person for themselves, have prevailed.

Vaccines seem to be the only effective barriers against the pandemic. Only a majority immunization of the world’s population could put a stop to the growing transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But neither the pharmaceutical transnationals nor the governments of the rich world have that vocation for collective response and global solidarity.
Who can develop and produce vaccines?

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry suffers from high concentration and transnationalization. Large companies from developed countries and emerging economies monopolize drug research, production and distribution. Nine of them are among the 100 companies that generate the highest revenues worldwide.

According to Euromonitor Global, the pharmaceutical industry is responsible for almost 4% of global production activity. If it were a country, it would be among the 15 richest economies on the planet. Almost half of the sector’s total sales come from China and the USA, followed by Switzerland, Japan, Germany and France.

The production of vaccines, in particular, concentrates in 4 large firms more than 80% of the market, according to 2019 data: the British GlaxoSmithKline, the American Merck Sharp & Dohme and Pfizer, and the French Sanofi.

That global market generated in 2018 some $37 billion and it is estimated that by 2027 it will exceed 6$4.5 billion.

As is remarkable, underdeveloped nations -which are the vast majority-, have hardly any capacity to develop their own vaccines (Cuba is one of the few honorable exceptions) and no productive capacities of their own. This has left them with little room for maneuver to influence the uneven development of vaccines in the midst of the pandemic.
How have the vaccines against COVID-19 been financed?

Since the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, it has been calling for a concerted and joint solution to the threat. But the wrathful logic of the market dictates the course of our world and what has taken place since then is a frantic race to hit the bull’s eye (immune and financial), in which there has been no shortage of obstacles, pressures and even blackmail.

From the outset, the major powers allied themselves with the major pharmaceutical corporations in order to conveniently manage the discovery of a solution that would allow them to emerge with an advantage from the health and economic crisis ravaging the world.

Governments provided at least $8.6 billion for vaccine development, according to analyst firm Airfinity. The US, EU and UK invested billions in AstraZeneca’s vaccine, developed by Oxford University. Germany invested $445 million in the vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech. Moderna’s vaccine was fully funded and co-produced by the U.S. government.

While philanthropic organizations contributed $1.9 billion. Individual personalities such as Bill Gates, Alibaba founder Jack Ma and country music star Dolly Parton made contributions.

Only $3.4 billion has come from the pharma companies’ own investment, part of which has also come from external funding.

Despite the fact that Big Pharma has only provided one third of the funding, who is reaping the economic benefits? Who has set the rules of the game in the distribution of vaccines?
Foul Play

To obtain the vaccine against COVID became, beyond the health interest, a geopolitical objective. Whoever managed to get the vaccine would capitalize on its commoditization and whoever had more financial resources would be able to monopolize more immunizations.

Scandalous was the news of the Trump administration’s maneuver, as early as March 2020, for the German company CureVac -which had begun to research a possible vaccine-, to leave its headquarters in the European country and move to the U.S. in exchange for “large amounts of money”.

As it had also acquired PCR tests, pulmonary ventilators, masks and biosafety equipment, Washington also set out from the beginning to acquire the production and distribution of vaccines.

This was coupled with sometimes subtle, sometimes overt, smear campaigns against Russian and Chinese vaccine candidates in a concerted attempt to shut them out of other markets. Many doubts were cast on the speed of development, quality of clinical trials and effectiveness of the candidates from both nations, especially against Sputnik V from Gamaleya Laboratories.

A nurse prepares a Sputnik V injection at a Moscow clinic. Photo: AFP

After Russia’s leading vaccine was certified by its authorities and sparked interest in several nations, the United States and the European Union have been tripping it up all over the place. The 2020 Annual Report of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently revealed that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently revealed that the Office of Global Affairs (OGA) used the Office of the Health Attaché in Brazil to persuade the government of that South American country to “reject the Russian COVID-19 vaccine”.

Text subtitled as Combating malign influences in the Americas. Photo Screenshot of HSS annual report

In response to the revelation, Russian presidential spokesman Dimity Peskov stated: “In many countries, the scale of pressure is unprecedented (…) such selfish attempts to force countries to abandon some vaccines lack perspective. We believe that there should be as many doses of vaccines as possible so that all countries, including the poorest, have a chance to stop the pandemic.”

The European Union, for its part, has not yet given the green light to the Russian vaccine for use in its member countries, even though that region has lagged behind the US, Canada, the UK and Israel in vaccine availability, and even though the prestigious health journal The Lancet acknowledged the high efficacy of Sputnik V in a publication.

Beyond such barriers, Russian and Chinese vaccines have been gaining ground in different regions, due to their effectiveness and the global shortage of immunizers. Slovakia even left the European Union fold to acquire 2 million doses of Sputnik V and Hungary, which has also approved the use of the Russian vaccine, acquired doses of the Chinese Sinopharm, which has also not received the green light from the European Medicines Agency.

Health workers in Indonesia unload a shipment of Chinese vaccine Sinovac

Blackmail without anesthesia

The States made the major investment, but BigPharma imposes the conditions and keeps the revenues. The monopoly of a few multinationals in the procurement and production of anti-COVID-19 vaccines gives such companies overwhelming power.

Recent reports show how pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has attempted to impose onerous conditions on Latin American nations to supply them with certain quantities of its injectable.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro showed his displeasure these days at Pfizer’s demands on his government, pointing out that among the conditions set by the consortium is a clause in the purchase contract that exempts it from “all liability” for possible side effects of its immunizer.

“We have been very hard and they have been very hard on us. They won’t change a comma. The government is dealing with this together with Congress and it is being discussed in terms of a relaxation of the law”, said the recently dismissed Brazilian Minister of Health, Army General Eduardo Pazuello.

Argentina, Peru and the Dominican Republic also suffered intense pressure from Pfizer, as shown in an investigation by The Bureau Investigative Journalism.

Pfizer representatives in Buenos Aires demanded indemnification against any civil claims citizens might file if they experienced adverse effects after being vaccinated. “We offered to pay for millions of doses upfront, we accepted this international insurance, but the last request was extraordinary: Pfizer demanded that Argentina’s sovereign assets also be part of the legal backing,” an Argentine official confessed. “It was an extreme demand that I had only heard when the foreign debt had to be negotiated, but in that case as in this one, we rejected it immediately.”

The Argentine government believes that Pfizer’s demands were part of a commercial strategy that favored sales to developed countries and not to Latin American countries.

There are several voices that warn that the urgency to have vaccines available for a disease that has left so many dead in the world may have led some governments to accept significant limitations on their responsibilities and demand transparency on the agreements with pharmaceutical companies.

Professor Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for National and Global Health Law said, “Pharmaceutical companies should not use their power to limit life-saving vaccines in low- and middle-income countries” and noted that liability protection should not be used as “the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of desperate countries with desperate populations”.

Even mighty Europe seems to have felt the pressures. Although EU agreements with vaccine manufacturers are kept with their main clauses secret, the Vaccine Procurement Strategy made public by the European Commission states that “the responsibility for the development and use of the vaccine, including any specific compensation required, will lie with the procuring Member States.”

Excerpt from the contract for the purchase of vaccines from CureVac by the European Commission was disclosed with all essential parts blacked out.
Who will be able to be vaccinated in 2021?

Vaccine production capacities in the world are insufficient to have the necessary doses this year to immunize the world’s population. The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) says that the estimated global demand for vaccines in 2021 is between 10 and 14 billion doses.

According to statistics cited by data firm Statista, the United States can produce nearly 4.7 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine and India more than 3 billion potential doses. China, previously not a major player in the vaccine export market, has committed to manufacturing more than 1 billion doses.

Great Britain, Russia, Germany and South Korea are also among the established manufacturing centers, but with lower production capacity.

Vacuna Johnson & Johnson. Photo: Reuters.

Given this reality, the inequity and injustice of today’s world are once again evident: the richest countries have purchased most of the vaccines that will be produced in 2021 (even for stockpiling), while poor nations will not have doses to administer even to their most vulnerable segments of the population. More than 100 nations are waiting for the first bulb to arrive.

It is estimated that 90% of the inhabitants of the nearly 70 lowest-income countries will not have the opportunity to be vaccinated against COVID-19 this year.

The most powerful nations took advantage of their purchasing power and investments in vaccine development to secure supplies of the coveted antidote.

So far, about 12.7 billion doses of various coronavirus vaccines have been pre-purchased, enough to vaccinate approximately 6.6 billion people (except for Johnson & Johnson’s, all vaccines approved so far require two doses).

More than half of those doses, 4.2 billion insured, with the option to buy another 2.5 billion, have been purchased by wealthy countries that are home to only 1.2 billion people.

Canada has bought enough doses to inoculate every Canadian five times, while the U.S., U.K., EU, EU, Australia, New Zealand and Chile have bought enough to vaccinate their citizens at least twice, although some of the vaccines have not yet been approved.

Israel struck a deal for 10 million doses and a promise of a steady supply from Pfizer in exchange for data on vaccine recipients. According to reports, the country also paid $30 per dose, double the price paid by the EU.

As Irene Bernal, a researcher on access to medicines at the NGO Salud por Derecho, told the newspaper El País last December, “we are seeing that whoever has the money is the one who has the access. We have kept 53% of the vaccines for 14% of the population, the rich. And the companies have a limited production capacity, so when are the doses going to reach the poorest countries?”

Low- and middle-income countries, with 84% of the world’s population, have made deals directly with pharmaceutical companies, but have so far secured only 32% of the supply.

“We are in such a massive crisis,” said Fatima Hassan, founder of the South African Health Justice Initiative. “If even in South Africa we can’t vaccinate half our population soon, I can’t even imagine how Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia and the rest of Africa will cope. If this is going to go on for another three years, we won’t get any kind of continental or global immunity.”

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard have asked the U.S. authorities to allow them to acquire part of the tens of millions of AstraZeneca vaccines produced in the United States, which Washington has stockpiled without having approved the use of this drug. Other countries that have already authorized this vaccine are begging to have them.

Mexico, one of the countries with the largest presence of COVID-19, has so far administered some 4.4 million doses using Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Sputnik V vaccines, in a population of more than 128 million inhabitants, which means a low vaccination rate, according to the website www.ourworldindata.org managed by the University of Oxford.

The most current statistics from this observatory show the low proportion and unequal distribution of the number of fully vaccinated people (with all the necessary doses) in the world:

Percentage of population fully vaccinated with required doses by country, March 16, 2021. Graphic: OurWorldinData /Oxford University

According to data collected by Bloomberg, as of Thursday, more than 410 million doses of anti-COVID vaccines have been administered worldwide in some 132 countries. This represents just 2.7% of the world’s population.

The new “Caravanistas” from Santiago de Cuba initiated their journey, that will culminate on January 8, in Havana, from the city’s Avenida de los Libertadores, alongside the former Moncada Garrison, which became the July 26 Educational Center following the triumph of the Revolution.

The honor of having participated in the struggle against the Batista’s dictatorship was reaffirmed by Rebel Army combatant Rafael Fong Nicolarde, who added that until his last breath he will continue to defend the sovereignty conquered and uphold the glory of our martyrs.

Wearing olive green uniforms, carrying Cuban flags and that of the July 26th of Movement, Cuban youth organizations, outstanding students and youth relieved the Santiago detachment upon entering Bayamo, the capital of Granma province, and proceeded to the city’s Plaza de la Revolución.

From the same balcony of the former City Hall, today headquarters of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power, where Fidel addressed the Bayamo’s people on January 2, 1959, the passage of the liberators was commemorated with a political-cultural event.

The 2021 Freedom Caravan entered Holguín via the Oscar Lucero community, on the outskirts of the provincial capital. Vidal Simón Reyes, a combatant in the underground struggle and the Rebel Army expressed his pride in accompanying Fidel on the historic journey to Havana.

He spoke of how our people, particularly youth, have resisted all manner of attacks on the Revolution with firmness, in the face of the pandemic and the intensified U.S. blockade, as their Moncada, their Granma, their Sierra Maestra, their Girón and their internationalist struggles.

(Taken from Granma)

“We reaffirm our absolute conviction that only cooperation and international solidarity can save humanity,” stated José Angel Portal Miranda, during the 73rd World Health Assembly, held virtually November 10.

He insisted emphatically, “COVID-19 has caused an unimaginable crisis in the world and no country or sector has escaped it,” citing the modest internationalist work of the Henry Reeve Medical Contingent as an example of how much could be done when national efforts are shared.

He stressed that the Contingent alone has sent 53 brigades of health professionals to help combat the disease in 39 countries, in addition to Cuban personnel already working in 58 nations.

Portal Miranda also noted the importance of designing national plans that are comprehensive and inter-sectorial, as Cuban authorities did, even before the first cases were reported.

“The capacity in terms of infrastructure, organization and human capital of our public health system has been decisive, with its unique characteristics as a free system, accessible to 100% of the population, based on primary health care and with the family doctor and nurse as its main strength; along with the use of products, equipment and novel inputs from the Cuban medical-pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry,” he stated.

The Minister added that this strategy has made possible the recovery of 91.3% of COVID-10 patients here, and prevented deaths among children and adolescents.

He pointed out that everything Cuba has done to confront the pandemic, both within the nation and with its international solidarity, has been conducted under the difficult conditions created by the U.S. government imposed blockade, and this country’s constant attempts to discredit and disrupt our medical cooperation around the world.

(Taken fron Granma)

An overwhelming sentiment assails viewers of an installation by visual artist Sándor González. The piece is a map of Cuba, created with thousands of matches, a mirror and acrylic paint, and is entitled Si te metes con uno…, representing a subtle parable which is well understood by those of us who live here.

To those who unfortunately conceive of intellectuals and artists as alien to the daily dynamics of society, it may be necessary to reiterate that these figures constitute an integral part of a nation in which we have been educated under the principle that our survival is guaranteed by our unity.

Any time is a good time – even when we are attacked, or when someone accepts the pay-off and chooses to betray the people who have applauded them – to let it be known that, at the slightest offense or threat against the physical and spiritual integrity of exponents of the Cuban universe, the only thing produced is more pride in Cuba, more admiration, an attitude that obviously implies the legitimate defense of the homeland.

Thus, it would be worthwhile to understand that, on this island, as this piece of artwork alerts, if just one match is lit, the rest will immediately burst into flame, stirred by our commitment to solidarity.

For Cubans, unity is survival.

(Taken from Granma)

Within this encouraging context, most of the country’s territories – except Havana and Mayabeque – began the transition to the third phase of the first stage of recovery, and President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez called for continuing to tirelessly and meticulously implement measures to maintain control of the epidemic.

During the afternoon meeting of the prevention and control task force , led by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and the President – emphasized was the importance of carefully monitoring the de-escalation of restrictions underway, given the occurrence of new, very serious outbreaks around the world following relaxation of preventative measures.

The President recalled that Sunday, July 20, saw a new record of cases internationally, clear evidence that the disease is not controlled and has not reached its worst moment, thus the importance of not letting our guard down.

Among measures adopted, to address COVID-19, were the provision of differentiated attention by social workers for the most at-risk households and the granting of temporary monetary social assistance benefits to this segment of the population.

Toward this end, Belkis Delgado Cáceres, the ministry’s director of Prevention, Assistance and Social Work, reported that municipal directors of Labor departments and City Councils were authorized to expedite the approval process for such benefits.

She likewise reported that social workers have been “permanently linked” to commercial food service providers contracted by Family Care Services (SAF), since home delivery has been expanded over these three months, with individuals who did not previously need the service added, to ensure access to prepared meals.

Social Protection Centers serving individuals found living on the streets, including temporary sites added across the country given the health emergency, have a total of 71 social workers on hand to provide support, while 21 work in isolation centers for persons who have been exposed to the new coronavirus.

Decentralizing Social Assistance procedures and transferring authority to local bodies, has been “positive,” Delgado stated, “Since this is where the problem and the budget are located, and the exceptional circumstances can be analyzed.”

“We have ensured that home delivery for basic services has been maintained, in a country with 21% of our population being older adults,” she added.

THE BUDGET RESPONDS

During an exceptional situation like the battle against COVID-19, when many were obliged to stay home to protect their health, or care for other family members, some households saw their income sharply reduced, but no one was left to their own devices.

“In these three months (March, April and May) there was a modest increase of 2,155 families requiring protection, which was to be expected, since more people have been supported who were not previously vulnerable, but now need help,” Delgado stated.

From March through the month of May, 1,700,000 pesos were allocated to households in need of support, as monetary benefits from Social Assistance or subsidies from Family Services.

During this period, municipal councils and provincial governments approved the delivery of resources to more than 1,600 persons, involving over three million pesos, funding that covered the delivery of essential items, including clothing, footwear, lingerie, furniture, kitchen utensils, mattresses and appliances, among others.

In the post-COVID-19 recovery period’s three phases, Social Assistance will maintain protection for vulnerable groups. “The next step is to maintain this protection until there the population’s economic situation has been normalized,” Delgado said.

“This exceptional effort is being made, even though efforts to tighten the U.S. government’s economic blockade of Cuba have not ceased.”

In figures:

-36 measures were adopted to address labor, wage and social security issues generated by the pandemic

-77,180 workers have benefitted from wage guarantees

-78,301 mothers and fathers with children in primary education have benefitted from wage and labor protection, while 10,955 children have attended early childhood day care centers

-8,776 at-risk workers isolated in their homes, as mandated by health authorities, benefitted from salary protection measures

-71,409 older adults provided differentiated support (over 60 and those in poor health)

-243,308 self-employed persons benefitted from temporary tax exemptions.

(Source: Granma)

Diplomat Jairo Rodríguez Hernández, member of the Cuban Permanent Mission in Geneva, responded to the slanderous comments made by Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, in an attempt to discredit our country’s international medical cooperation and national public health system.

With the principled deliberation characteristic of Cuban diplomats, Rodríguez pointed out that the accusations made by this individual were false, based on absurd arguments, with intentions totally alien to the defense of human rights:

“For what purpose? We should ask the Miami-based propaganda machine, which has promoted the entire show on social media and digital outlets based on totally false information, regarding this subject,” he stated.

Rodríguez condemned the individual’s accusations, including references to his health condition and that of his family, which were not only absurd, but more fitting in a bad novel.

The diplomat noted that the Cuban state devotes significant effort and resources to ensure the right to health for all citizens, universally available and free of charge, without distinction or discrimination of any kind.

He categorically rejected and denounced any attempt to tarnish the exemplary record of Cuban international medical cooperation and link it to criminal trafficking in persons.

“The source of the mandate followed by the empire’s acolyte is well known. Cuba has an exemplary record of action in the fight against human trafficking and maintains a policy of zero tolerance toward any form of this crime,” Rodríguez emphasized.

He noted that it is regrettable that real organizations and human rights defenders in Cuba do not have the resources to travel to Geneva and participate in such hearings and contribute to the work of the HRC, while organizations like Engineers of the World, of which this individual is not a member, openly traffic in influence, lending themselves to accrediting such persons, whose objectives are totally alien to the promotion and protection of human rights.

Rodríguez demanded that the body, which has more significant and urgent matters to address, be given the respect and consideration it deserves.

Earlier, when the counter-revolutionary paid by Washington attempted to intervene in the HRC hearing, the Cuban diplomatic representation in Geneva objected with several point of order motions, supported by several countries, including Venezuela, China and Eritrea.

The farce set up for the media show to attack Cuba failed completely, as the mercenary was unable to perform his task.

Who is Ariel Ruiz Urquiola?

This individual, a biologist and holder of land in usufruct in Viñales, was trained and developed by the U.S. government’s subversive apparatus, as an alleged environmental activist and human rights defender to serve the country’s hostile policy toward Cuba.

He was sentenced in Case No. 8 of 2018 by a Municipal Court to one year’s imprisonment for contempt of court, as stipulated in article 144, paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code, with all aspects of due process respected, including the right to defense and legal representation, the right to a fair and impartial trial, the independence of judges, the collegiate nature of the courts, and the public, oral nature of trial proceedings.

On May 3, 2018, two Forest Ranger Corps agents heard the sound of a chainsaw while making their usual rounds to prevent illegal logging in the area known as El Cuajaní, in the municipality of Viñales, Pinar del Río province.

Moving toward the sound, they found citizen Ruiz operating a chainsaw, having already felled six royal palms in perfect condition.

As a result of the investigation and evidence presented during the oral proceedings, it was clearly demonstrated that Ruiz offended the two forest rangers in the exercise of their duties, and attempted to obstruct their proceedings.

He received a home visit, in January this year, from Mara Tekach, U.S. chargé d’affaires in Havana, as the U.S. representative herself reported on the embassy’s official Twitter account.

Media reports indicate that the official representative of Washington in Havana applauded the appearance before the HRC of this individual, who went so far as to invent the idea that he had been purposefully infected with the AIDS virus, a disease for which he receives quality treatment, free of charge, by the same health system he attempts to defame.

(Source: Granma)

In another encouraging meeting at Revolution Palace with scientists and experts, which have become a regular point on the government’s agenda every Thursday, with Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz participating as well, the President insisted that discipline and control must be maintained throughout the recovery period.

Referring to the benefits of these frequent dialogues with Cuba’s scientific community, Diaz-Canel noted that every week new findings are reported and this Thursday was no exception. The agenda included reports on research in various fields: demographics, mathematics, biotechnology, etc.

María Guadalupe Guzmán Tirado, director of Research, Diagnosis and Reference at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK), presented the results of a study on patients with persistent positivity for SARS-COV-2.

This research has confirmed that, in more than 200 patients admitted to the IPK, the highest levels of the virus were detected in the first three days of infection, but that the pathogen can remain present for more than a month.

Thus, this study confirms the importance of keeping patients hospitalized as long as their PCR test remains positive, since such patients can continue to infect others, she noted.

From the Cuba’s Center for Advanced Studies, General Director Angelina Díaz García, explained another important study of nasopharyngeal samples using high-resolution microscopy, which has made it possible to observe the virus and its destructive impact on pharyngeal and nasal epithelial cells with total clarity. That is why, she noted, some patients report a total or partial loss of their sense of smell.

Where the virus replicates most, she stated, is in the nostrils, thus the need to ensure risk perception and use facemasks as prescribed, covering the mouth and especially the nose.

As usual in these gatherings, Raúl Guinovart Díaz, dean of the University of Havana’s department of Mathematics and Computing, presented the well-known curve graphs depicting the evolution of active cases in Cuba, emphasizing that it would be a mistake for the population to think that in the recovery stage no preventative measures are needed, adding that special attention should be paid to crowded closed spaces, where outbreaks can occur.

(Source:Granma)

It must be said that we were always aware that Havana would be the most difficult and complex site in confronting the epidemic, given its characteristics as a national capital.

The results of work carried out have allowed us to note progress made in the capital’s battle, over the last few days, to the point that, for seven consecutive days, established health benchmarks (for moving to the recovery period) were generally met, although cases continue to be reported on a daily basis, as is considered part of the process.

In view of the above, the government task force considers that the province’s positive indicators makes possible authorization of a transition to phase one of the first stage of recovery in Havana, for which preparations are already underway.

The capital will continue to be the location of greatest risk. Thus, Havana residents must enter this new phase with great responsibility and caution, in strict compliance with established sanitary measures.

On the other hand, the implementation of the recovery’s first phase in other provinces has been carefully monitored, which we evaluate positively, verifying that the health benchmarks reached in these territories support moving to a more advanced stage.

Consequently, the government task force has decided to authorize the country’s provinces and municipalities to transition to the second phase of recovery, as of Friday, July 3, except for Havana and Matanzas, with the latter to do so next week.

We call attention to the fact that continuing to advance in the recovery process depends on the population, individually and collectively, behaving in a responsible manner, complying with sanitary measures and minimizing the risks, of which are confident. We are sure that we can continue to count on the support and understanding of our people.

Council of Ministers

(Transcript: Presidency of the Republic)

As we have become accustomed, in recent days, we have the pleasure, the satisfaction of receiving another group of our valuable health workers, who are members of the Henry Reeve Brigade serving on different international cooperation medical missions, in solidarity, in the fight against the pandemic in other countries.

Therefore, for you, as we did with the Lombardy Brigade, first of all, a warm embrace and welcome home on behalf of all our people.

We are here with several compañeros working on the task force that has guided the COVID battle in the country: Vice President Salvador, Prime Minister Marrero, Deputy Prime Ministers Comandante de la Revolución Ramiro Valdés and compañero Morales, Minister Portal, the Attorney General of the Republic, compañero Amado, Council of Ministers secretary, and other compañeros who are also here today, participating in the work sessions we had during the day.
Photo: José Manuel Correa

I think that with your arrival, the victorious arrival of the Cuban medical brigades to the homeland is being confirmed. Over these last days, after we received the brigade from Lombardy, our advisors in Nicaragua have arrived, as well as some members who arrived earlier from your brigade and the brigade from Antigua and Barbuda, and all of them are arriving in the homeland with the satisfaction of having fulfilled their duty.

I have here a letter sent to us on April 14, 2020 by the head of government of the Principality of Andorra, Mr. Xavier Espot Zamora, in which he recalls that, in response to the request for bilateral cooperation they made to the Cuban government on March 22, immediately, a few weeks later, they welcomed to Andorra, and proudly so, 39 members of the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade. And at the end of the letter, he expressed profound gratitude and appreciation for the efforts made by our compatriots who are members of the Henry Reeve International Brigade.

I believe that, in general, the results of the Andorran brigade have been publicly assessed as positive by authorities in the Principality, especially health authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that country.

It is clear that your work contributed to the improvement of epidemiological indicators in Andorra, with the result that by the end of the mission there were no new cases of COVID-19, no patients admitted to intensive care, with a gradual decrease in active cases and a greater number of hospital discharges.

These results and, above all, the example you have set with your altruism, with your dedication, your solidarity, as opposed to neoliberal self-interest, is one of the best ways in which we are crushing the empire’s perverse efforts to discredit the exemplary, supportive work of Cuban medical brigades, and consequently the insistent, constant attacks on the work of Cuban health care and, above all, the work of the Cuban Revolution.

For all these reasons, you have the recognition, admiration and affection of all our people, who tonight will also be applauding you.

I believe we will see each other again after the quarantine, just as we did with the Lombardy brigade, and will be able to discuss your experiences, all that you can offer as we continue to perfect our COVID-19 control program, and also as part of the analysis being conducted to continue perfecting all actions we must take when confronting other pandemics or situations like the one we have faced for the past three months.

Once again we reiterate, on behalf of the government, the Party and the Cuban people, our welcome to the homeland.

(Applause)