Category Archives: headline

Victoria set to ease restrictions after snap five-day lockdown

2021-02-16 FreeNews

Victoria looks set to end its third lockdown today unless there is a sudden spike in coronavirus cases.

Four straight days of limited spread of the virus within the community has hopes high the state will be able to end stage four restrictions at 11.59pm.

Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday said Victorians could expect "favourable announcements" today, providing numbers remain low and no mystery cases emerge.

He said the state was "well placed" to ease restrictions, but would not reveal exactly what changes would follow at the end of the snap five-day lockdown.

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There were four new cases on Tuesday, but only two of those were outside of hotel quarantine.

"It is fair to say that with just two, contained additional community cases — this strategy is working," Mr Andrews said.

"We are well placed to be able to make changes, as I said yesterday I'm not in a position to definitively commit to that.

"The next 24 hours will, of course, be crucial.

"We will wait as long as we can to have as much data as possible to make that important judgement."

It is not yet known if Victoria will return to the restrictions in place before lockdown, or if there will be a slow easing of measures.

"That will be based on public health advice, whether we can go back directly to the settings that were there on Thursday and Friday, or whether we have to ease back into it," Mr Andrews said.

"If we see a continuation of these sorts of numbers, I'm certain the Chief Health Officer and I, and other colleagues, will be in a position to make favourable announcements tomorrow."

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The state recorded two new local cases of coronavirus overnight, both being primary household contacts linked to the private dining event in Coburg.

The new infections take the Holiday Inn cluster to 19 cases.

"They've been isolating, they've been at home, they've done the right thing," Mr Andrews said.

"They're not unexpected positives, although I will make it clear they did test negative some days ago."

Mr Andrews said there were no further exposure sites as the cases had been isolating.

Victoria's testing commander Jeroen Weimar said 70 primary close contacts had been identified from the woman — who worked across three mental health units at Melbourne hospitals — after she attended the Coburg party.

"There's been a phenomenal piece of work done by the teams at Royal Melbourne and Alfred over the last 24 hours," Mr Weimar said.

"We have not just tested those 70 individuals, but also a whole number of other people and their potential secondary contacts in and around the health units."

Every person tested so far has returned a negative result.

There are about 100 close contacts linked to the two Glenroy kindergarten exposure sites, Glenroy Central Kinder and the Goodstart Early Learning Centre, with all returning negative test results so far.

"We have the pop-up site again active at Oak Park to make sure the remaining close contacts, about 20 people, also conclude testing," Mr Weimar said.

There are 589 household and social primary close contacts linked to the Holiday Inn outbreak in self-isolation.

A total of 499 hotel quarantine staff and residents are also isolating.

While 1,189 primary close contacts have been linked to the exposure sites.

Mr Weimar said health authorities wanted "as comprehensive a view as possible" before deciding to lift lockdown measures.

"We've picked up two new positive cases today, but because they're in our primary close contact network we're not excessively concerned and that's the pattern we want to see," he said.

The latest coronavirus exposure sites listed on the Department of Health website include BonBon Bakery and Sacca's Fruit World in Broadmeadows.

Anyone who visited the stores during the specified times must get tested and isolate for 14 days.

Shoppers who went to the west side of Broadmeadows Central shopping centre, including the fresh fruit and meat section, must monitor for symptoms.

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4 Dead, 1 Missing after US Virgin Islands Helicopter Crash

2021-02-16 FreeNews

By Tim Fitzsimons

Four people were killed and one is missing after a private helicopter crashed Monday afternoon near Botany Bay on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to local authorities.

Richard Motta, communications director for the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, confirmed that the identities of the four deceased had not yet been released pending notification of their next-of-kin.

“The Virgin Island Fire Service was the lead agency, they mounted what at the time was a rescue effort, which turned into a recovery effort,” Motta said.

“There was a fifth person listed on the flight manifest,” Motta said. “Search and rescue, or recovery, efforts have commenced this morning for the fifth passenger on the manifest.”

A swimmer told the Virgin Islands Daily News that they saw plumes of black smoke and smelled a chemical odor coming from the hill where the chopper crashed Monday afternoon.

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China: Coronavirus Spread Much Earlier, Wider than First Thought

2021-02-16 FreeNews

The coronavirus was already spreading widely throughout Wuhan, China, by December of 2019 and had already mutated into more than a dozen strains before the end of that year, World Health Organization (WHO) investigators said Monday.

CNN reported that a team of experts probing the virus’s origin in China said that they had found evidence indicating that the spread of COVID-19 in Wuhan had been far more widespread in late 2019 than Chinese authorities admitted at the time.

“The virus was circulating widely in Wuhan in December, which is a new finding,” Peter Ben Embarek, the WHO’s lead investigator on the mission, told CNN.

Ben Embarek added to CNN that the team had identified the first known case of COVID-19 in China, which he said had no link to the markets originally blamed for the virus’s spread.

“He has no link to the markets,” Ben Embarek told the news channel. “We also spoke to him. He has a very — in a way — dull and normal life, no hiking in the mountains type of things. He was an office worker in a private company.”

News of the virus’s more widespread transmission in Wuhan comes just a day after the Biden administration called on China to provide all data it has gathered related to COVID-19 and stressed the administration’s “deep concerns” regarding reports indicating that China was stymieing WHO investigators.

“We have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. “It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government. To better understand this pandemic and prepare for the next one, China must make available its data from the earliest days of the outbreak.”

Officials on the WHO team have blamed China’s government for allegedly pressuring them to say that the coronavirus was imported to China from abroad, a counter to the Trump administration, which spent much of 2020 attempting to blame China for the virus’s spread, even often calling it the “China virus.”

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Jamaican Women of Florida Announce Annual Women’s Empowerment Conference

2021-02-16 FreeNews

CNW- The Jamaican Women of Florida (JWOF), in keeping with their mission to encourage emerging powerful women, will host their 8th Annual Hybrid 2021 Women’s Empowerment Conference and Scholarship Fundraiser (WEC) sponsored by Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) on March 6, 2021, 9:30 am to 2:30 pm.

There will be a networking event, adhering to CDC guidelines on social distance, on March 5, 2021, 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm at Island Space Caribbean Museum in the Westfield Broward Mall.

The 90-minute networking event will allow attendees to connect, learn more about JWOF and our Scholarship program. Limited tickets are available due to current community conditions.

The Women’s Empowerment Conference and Scholarship Fundraiser will focus on empowerment, financial freedom, wellbeing, and more. This year’s keynote speakers are Juliet Roulhac, Regional director of external affairs for FPL, and Lisa Hanna, a four-term Jamaica parliament members.

Attendees will have an opportunity to e-meet scholarship recipients, who will consist of current and past JWOF’s scholarship program recipients. Recipients will share their experiences as JWOF scholarship awardees, explaining the impact this has made on their lives.

There will be five sessions focused on our theme of Hope, Elevate and Restore. Presentations will be made by experts in health, the stock market (the United States and Jamaican), personal branding, and entrepreneurship.

“FPL is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunities,” said Juliet Roulhac, director of external affairs.

“We are excited that one of the scholarships being presented is in the name of FPL; EmPOWERher scholarship. Supporting initiatives like this one is one way our company works with the communities we serve to make Florida an even better place to live, work and raise a family.”

All proceeds raised will be used to fund our annual “Powerful Women…Next Generation” scholarship program. The $5,000 ($1,250 yearly) scholarship is awarded annually to a first or second-generation, Jamaican-American female graduate of a high school in Florida who intends to enroll in a post-secondary institution the following fall semester.

For information on how to support the JWOF scholarship fund, visit; https://www.jamaicanwomenofflorida.com/donations

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US Congress forming Group to Probe Capitol Riot

2021-02-16 FreeNews

Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, said on Monday that the US Congress will move to establish an outside, independent commission to review the “facts and causes” related to the deadly 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump in the waning days of his presidency.

Pelosi said in a letter to members of Congress that the commission would be modeled on a similar one convened after the 11 September 2001, terrorist attack on Washington and New York.

Establishing such a body, were it to resemble the commission that reviewed the 9/11 crisis, is expected to require legislation.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers had called for a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate why government officials and law enforcement failed to stop the attack on the Capitol, while both chambers of Congress were engaged in the process of certifying Joe Biden’s election victory.

The calls followed Trump’s acquittal in his second impeachment trial, in which he was accused of inciting the insurrection after months of stoking his supporters with exhortations to try to overturn the election result and an inflammatory rally on the day itself, outside the White House, when he urged angry supporters to march on the Capitol.

Pelosi said on Monday that the panel will also look at the “facts and causes” behind the catastrophe, in which five people died on 6 January, including a police officer, many were injured, and two police officers died by suicide in the days that followed.

There were renewed calls from both parties on Sunday for such a commission.

“We need a 9/11 commission to find out what happened and make sure it never happens again, and I want to make sure that the Capitol footprint can be better defended next time,” said Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator of South Carolina and close Trump ally who voted to acquit the former president on Saturday. “His behavior after the election was over the top,” Graham said of the former president on Fox News Sunday.

Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware agreed. Speaking on ABC’s This Week, he said that a bipartisan commission would “make sure we secure the Capitol going forward and that we lay bare the record of just how responsible and how abjectly violating of his constitutional oath Trump really was”.

Pelosi’s statement on Monday referred to a review that has been under way, led by the retired US army general Russel Honoré.

Pelosi said: “For the past few weeks, General Honoré has been assessing our security needs by reviewing what happened on January 6 and how we must ensure that it does not happen again … It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened.”

She continued: “Our next step will be to establish an outside, independent 9/11-type commission to “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex … and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement in the National Capitol Region.”

More than a month after the attack, the Capitol complex remains guarded by more than 5,000 national guard troops and ringed with eight-foot fences rimmed with razor wire. The troops are expected to remain through mid-March.

Last month, the US Capitol police head urged lawmakers to add permanent fencing and back-up security, noting a 2006 security assessment recommended installation of a permanent perimeter fence around the Capitol.

But many members of Congress and the Washington DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, have urged congressional leaders not to adopt permanent fencing or military security.

More than 200 people have been charged with federal crimes in the bloody assault on Congress and a huge investigation is ongoing.

Four House Republicans wrote to Pelosi on Monday complaining that their party had not been consulted about Honoré’s review and also demanded answers about her knowledge and instructions ahead of the insurrection, including whether she was involved in delaying the deployment of the national guard, a charge Pelosi dismissed, according to several reports.

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US: Hundreds Volunteer to Protect Asian Americans from Attacks

2021-02-16 FreeNews

(CNN)Jacob Azevedo’s stomach turned as he watched a disturbing video of an 84-year-old Thai American man who was fatally shoved to the ground on a sidewalk in San Francisco.

It was the second video of an unprovoked attack on an elderly Asian American that Azevedo, a resident of Oakland, had seen on social media out of the Bay Area within an hour, he told CNN.

Ever since the world learned of the new coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, harassment and violence targeting the Asian American and Pacific Islander community has rapidly increased across the United States.

More than 2,808 firsthand accounts of anti-Asian hate from 47 states and the District of Columbia were reported between March 19 and December 31, 2020, with 7.3% of those incidents involving Asian Americans over the age of 60, according to a report by Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition documenting anti-Asian hate and discrimination amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent surge in attacks on older Asian Americans in the Bay Area has heightened concerns among activist and leaders in the community.

Exhausted by the violence, Azevedo offered on social media to walk with anyone in Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood to help them feel safe.

“I wasn’t intending to be some kind of vigilante,” Azevedo, 26, told CNN. “I just wanted to offer people some kind of comfort.”

His idea quickly resonated throughout the community and within days he had nearly 300 volunteers reaching out to join him to protect the community in a project now called Compassion in Oakland.

Azevedo, who is of Hispanic descent, believes this is a moment for all minority groups to stand in solidarity with the Asian American community. He said people from all racial backgrounds and ages reached out to him sharing the same desire to help support the community.

“This is important because this community just needs healing,” Azevedo said. “There’s a lot of racial tensions going on because of the previous president’s rhetoric but in general our communities need healing. This is an issue that’s been ongoing for a while.”

Stop APPI Hate Co-Founder, Cynthia Choi, told CNN that crime and violence is nothing new to the Asian community.

“This is a problem and issue that doesn’t get a lot of attention, especially in low income communities,” Choi said. ” And of course the pandemic, I think has exacerbated the conditions and exposed racial disparities.”

Choi said in times of crisis when vulnerable people are being targeted it’s heartwarming to see community members come out and take action.

“In Oakland, they’re planning this action and it’s really less about controlling and more about supporting the community and showing up,” she said. “It’s showing our elders who are afraid, afraid to leave their house that we’re here, we want to support you we’re holding you right now.”

Azevedo hopes that the organization can work with law enforcement in the future to protect the community.

“All of us need to come together if we hope to make this a safer community for the years to come,” Azevedo said.

The group planned a soft launch of the project on Saturday with a few volunteer groups on the streets. They hope to continue to build awareness of the issue in the community.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, US Disease Chief, Awarded $1m Israeli Prize for His Work

2021-02-16 FreeNews

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was awarded Israel’s $1 million Dan David Prize on Monday in recognition of his leadership on HIV research and AIDS relief, his advocacy for the vaccines against coronavirus and for “courageously defending science in the face of uninformed opposition during the challenging COVID crisis.”

“As the COVID-19 pandemic unraveled, [Fauci] leveraged his considerable communication skills to address people gripped by fear and anxiety and worked relentlessly to inform individuals in the United States and elsewhere about the public health measures essential for containing the pandemic’s spread,” the prize committee explained in a statement. “In addition, he has been widely praised for his courage in speaking truth to power in a highly charged political environment.”

The committee commended his efforts to fight for the recognition of novel approaches to treating the coronavirus pandemic, including the development of the world’s first-ever mRNA vaccines, which are now being given to millions of people worldwide – including in Israel.

In addition, it said that he was receiving the award for his contributions to HIV research and being the architect of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, ultimately saving millions of lives in the developing world.

The Dan David Prize, established in 2000 by the late international businessman Dan David is headquartered at Tel Aviv University. It gives $1 million awards in three categories each year for contributions addressing the past, present and future.

Fauci won the prize alongside other health and medical scholars and researchers this year, including health and medicine historians Prof. Alison Bashford, Prof. Katharine Park and Prof. Keith Wailoo in the field of History of Health and Medicine (past category); and the pioneers of an anti-cancer immunotherapy, Prof. Zelig Eshhar, Prof. Carl June, and Dr. Steven Rosenberg in the field of Molecular Medicine (future category).

Fauci won the prize for achievement in the present.

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Salsa Music Pioneer Johnny Pacheco Dies at 85

2021-02-16 FreeNews

Johnny Pacheco, the Dominican-born bandleader and co-founder of Fania Records, which opened the world to salsa music, died Monday. He was 85.

His wife, Maria Elena Pacheco, announced his passing at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey. No cause of death was provided.

Fania Records posted a tribute to Pacheco on Facebook, writing: “It is with profound sadness we share the news of the passing of Johnny Pacheco today at 85 years old, he was one of Fania’s founders and the man most responsible for the genre of Salsa music. Born in Santiago, RD and later moving to NY as a child he was much more than a musician, bandleader, writer, arranger and producer, he was a visionary. His music will live on eternally and we are forever grateful to have been a part of his wonderful journey.’

Pacheco’s music career began in 1954, when he pulled together The Chuchulecos Boys band. With Pacheco on percussion, they played at social events and weddings. He later went on to play for several other bands, including Tito Puente and Xavier Cugat. In 1958, he recorded his first album, playing congas and bongos aside Charlie Palmieri on piano on the Latin jazz album “Easy Does It.”

After joining Alegre Records, Pacheco recorded the album “Pacheco y su charanga.” The album’s success was thanks to a new dance fad at the time called the pachanga — a brisk blend of cha-cha-cha and merengue — that propelled him to worldwide notoriety.

In 1963, he and co-founded and became creative director and musical producer of a new label, Fania Records, which launched the careers of many popular salsa artists and became known by many as the Motown of salsa. The label’s roster of salsa musicians toured as Fania’s All-Stars.

During his multi-decade career, Pacheco wrote and recorded over 150 songs, earned nine Grammy nominations, 10 gold records and was presented with the Presidential Medal of Honor in 1996 from the then-President of the Dominican Republic, Joaquin Balaguer. The same year he became the first Latin music producer to receive the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences Governor’s Award.

Pacheco is survived by his wife Maria Elena, two daughters, Norma and Joanne; and two sons, Elis and Phillip.

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Barbados Care Homes COVID Hotspots, Lockdown Extended

2021-02-16 FreeNews

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Feb. 15, CMC – Minister of Health Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic said Monday that his ministry has been monitoring a number of COVID-19 “hotspots” at elderly care facilities, one of which has had to be turned into an isolation facility because of the large number of residents and staff testing positive for the virus.

This comes when Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced the national lockdown would remain until February 28.

Bostic cited the Geriatric Hospital and two senior citizens’ homes – one in the parish of St Michael and the other on the eastern side of the island – as the facilities which public health officials have focused their attention over the last ten days.

Bostic said the home located on the east of the island posed a challenge for health officials since it was a larger institution where there were 31 positive patients.

Three staff members also tested positive using PCR tests, while another three were diagnosed as positive using antigen rapid tests and were awaiting results from their PCR tests.

“Because of the peculiarity with the situation with several elderly people and given the layout of this particular home, which is bigger than the average home, we’ve decided in collaboration with Dr Corey Forde [Head of Isolation Facilities] that we will designate, and we have done so, this particular home as an isolation facility because the majority of people there are positive,” Minister Bostic said.

“We’ve taken control of the home for this period to help them get out of the situation by utilising resources of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as well as the Ministry of Health in terms of our public health officers and medical officers.

“We have done a serious job of sanitising the place and rearranging things so that we can do what we are doing at the moment under the safest of conditions and that will be ongoing,” he added.

As for the senior citizens home in St Michael, Bostic said it recorded five positive cases using the antigen rapid test. However, he added that when public health officials tested everyone using the PCR tests, there were two additional positive cases.

Meanwhile, the Health Minister said since the last report of one positive case at the island’s Geriatric Hospital a few weeks ago, there have been five additional cases at that institution – two kitchen staff members and three nurses. They were all asymptomatic.

The silver lining, he explained, was that after conducting several tests all of the patients there had returned negative test results for COVID-19.

“And the remainder of the staff except for 20, who we are awaiting tests for, they are all negative. So that the kitchen which was stood down, sanitised and everything is going to be back in operation from today, and I give my sincerest appreciation to the entire staff at the Geriatric Hospital for staying the course. So, we are comfortable with where we are with the Geriatric Hospital at this time,” Minister Bostic stated.

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PM Mottley: Lockdown Will Remain Until End of Feb.

Barbadians will now remain on lockdown until the end of the month, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced Monday, as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths continued to climb.

On the same day that it was announced the island had recorded the first death of a healthcare worker due to the virus, Mottley said that the period of “national pause” which was to end on February 17 would continue until February 28.

“We are going to require a little more time to do what has to be done,” Mottley said.

The Prime Minister said there would be an estimated loss in economic activity of about BDS$150 million (US$75 million) as a result of the extended lockdown.

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“This is not an easy decision that we’ve had to make. I met this morning with my finance and economic team and I asked a simple question: Can this country withstand any further extension of the period of pause, or stop as we’re now hearing from our public health officials. The simple answer from the finance and economic team is ‘yes, we will be hurt by any further extension but it will not kill our economy and it will not collapse our economy’,” Mottley said.

“The advisors have indicated to me that it is likely that we will come in at just under BDS$78 million (US$39 million)for this first part of the lockdown, in terms of loss of economic activity. If we go for an additional period of time – just under two weeks – then the most that will be is probably another BDS$70 million-$75 million (US$35 million-$37.5 million). So that we are potentially looking at a loss of about BDS$150 million (US$75 million) in economic activity for the month of February.”

The 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will remain in place until February 28. The only changes are that the post office will reopen on Thursday to facilitate the cashing of pension cheques; remittance offices will also open; and minimarts, which were not allowed to operate during the lockdown, will be allowed to open Mondays to Fridays, like the supermarkets.

Both minimarts and supermarkets will be closed on weekends.

Prime Minister Mottley’s announcement came after Minister of Health Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic disclosed in a statement that a Queen Elizabeth Hospital nursing assistant had died on Sunday, as a result of COVID-19.

“As the first health care worker to die from COVID-19 in Barbados, her death shook the nursing and health care communities yesterday,” Bostic said on Monday.

“Prior to yesterday, Barbados had so far been spared the loss of any of its health care workers and the cases of COVID among the QEH staff have largely been the result of community spread and not direct patient to caregiver contact.”

The nursing assistant’s death brings to 25 the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 since the first case here in March 2020.

Up to Saturday, Barbados had recorded 2,268 confirmed cases.

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Cuba Set to Test Its Own Covid Vaccine

2021-02-16 FreeNews

By Will Grant
Cuba correspondent, BBC News

Cuban scientists are working against the clock on their Soberana 2 vaccine

Some of the equipment at the Finlay Institute of Vaccines in Havana might be considered outdated elsewhere in the world but the science taking place behind its white-washed walls is cutting edge.

Researchers are working long shifts on Cuba’s best shot to solve its coronavirus crisis: Soberana 2, the island’s domestically-produced Covid-19 vaccine.

Soberana (Spanish for “sovereign”) 2 is a conjugate vaccine – meaning an antigen is fused to a carrier molecule to bolster the vaccine’s stability and effectiveness.

Within weeks, it will be tested on tens of thousands of volunteers.

Vicente Vérez Bencomo speaks at a news conference — i
**Vicente Vérez Bencomo says the results from the first trials have been encouraging**

The results from the first clinical trials were “encouraging” and “very important”, says the institute’s director, Dr Vicente Vérez Bencomo, and the Communist-run government hopes to give the vaccine to everyone on the island by the end of the year.

“Our plan is to, of course, first immunise our population,” explains Dr Vérez at a news conference. “Moving to commercial production of Soberana 2, we’re planning to have in the order of 100 million doses during 2021 and we will dedicate an important part of these doses to the full immunisation of the country.”

No US role

It is an ambitious goal but a realistic one as Cuba has more than 30 years of experience in biotechnology and immunology.

An advertisement poster of Cuba's Soberana 2 Covid-19 vaccine hangs next to the Cuban national flag at the Finlay Institute in Havana, Cuba, 20 January 2021. — **Cuba is not new to the development of vaccines**

In the late 1980s, Cuban scientists produced the first meningitis B vaccine and the then-leader, Fidel Castro, opened the Finlay Institute partly with a view to finding ways around the decades-old US embargo on the island.

If patents from US pharmacological companies would not be available to Cuba, it would find its own solutions in that field, he reasoned.

However, it remains beyond the island’s production capacity to make 100 million doses of the vaccine without some form of international assistance.

Still, even if the US government under President Joe Biden reverses the hard line former President Trump took towards Cuba, the US will not play a role in producing Soberana.

A world map showing which countries have administered Covid-19 vaccines

“Our main contacts are with Europe and Canada and we have people participating from Italy and from France,” Dr Vérez explains, adding that “unfortunately” at this point there is no US participation. “We hope in the future it will be possible to move to the next step in co-operation,” he says.

International bodies like the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) hope that Cuba will become the first Latin American country to produce its own vaccine.

Dr José Moya speaks at a news conference in Havana — **Dr José Moya shares the Cuban scientists’ optimism**

“We’re very optimistic,” says PAHO’s representative in Cuba, Dr José Moya. “We’ve been kept informed since the pilot phase of Soberana 2 and during the experimental trials, and we’ve known that Cuba has been investigating the viability of several vaccines since August last year.”

Healthcare under strain

The stakes for Cuba are high. Firstly, its own Covid-19 statistics are worsening by the week.

Confirmed cases recently climbed to more than 1,000 a day for the first time since the pandemic began. While those figures are tiny compared to those in Mexico, Brazil and the US, they are still serious enough to place additional strain on Cuba’s creaking healthcare system.

By the middle of last year Cuba had largely contained its outbreak through a combination of an aggressive public information campaign and the closure of its airports. In July and August, there were several consecutive weeks of minimal transmission and very few deaths.

But cases have gradually crept up again, much to Cubans’ frustration.

Dr Moya of the Pan-American Health Organization says the situation is not out of control and mirrors that in other countries. “There came a moment in all our countries when you had to start to reopen. And that’s what happened here, as they tried to progressively move towards the so-called ‘new normal’.”

Short-term pain

But Cuba is currently experiencing its worst economic outlook since the end of the Cold War so there is also an important economic incentive to a successful vaccine.

The coronavirus lockdown has been very painful for an island so dependent on tourism with the economy contracting a whopping 11% last year.

Long lines form every day outside food shops and supermarkets as people queue for basic goods.

People wearing masks line up to buy food in a market in Havana, Cuba, 02 February 2021. — **Cubans often have to brave long queues to buy food**

The government has chosen this moment to implement a number of overdue reforms, from unification of Cuba’s tangled dual currency system to some liberalisation of self-employment licences.

While those steps may eventually strengthen Cuba’s troubled economy, they spell short-term pain for many families, especially those without relatives sending remittances from abroad.

Cubans are very resilient and resourceful – they have had to be to face the twin challenges of US sanctions and the state’s overbearing control. But many are exhausted at the relentless months of coronavirus restrictions and the grinding economic hardship.

A ray of hope?

With children still out of school, businesses going bust and a curfew in place across Havana, people long for some encouraging news about vaccination.

Cubans check their phones as telephone and internet connections were knocked out in a nationwide failure, in Havana, Cuba February 12, 2021 — **Everyone is hoping for good news on the vaccine front**

A viable vaccine would allow the island to reopen sooner and with more certainty than before. Soberana 2 would also generate some much-needed income if exported around the region.

It all places real urgency on the scientists working on it, not only to alleviate the island’s health crisis but its economic one, too.

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