Activists in Santiago de Cuba make face masks to combat the coronavirus

By: Idolidia Darias

Activists make face masks in Palma Soriano. (Photo courtesy of Denia Fernández).

Miami (Radio and Television Martí) - Because the Cuban regime does not provide face masks to the population to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, a group of members of the Republican Party of Cuba and the Latin American Federation of Rural Women of Cuba are making and distributing them among those in need in municipalities of Santiago de Cuba.

Denia Fernández, representative of FLAMUR, told Radio Televisión Martí this Friday that the police in Palma Soriano, a municipality located in that province, were not allowing people to circulate on the streets without wearing masks, something she described as incredible "since the government does not provide them to the population and not to health personnel either."

Fortunately, Fernández noted, activists in that town had begun to look for solutions to the lack of protection and started making them in the homes of members of the "Good Samaritan" project, which offers help and collaboration to the most needy population.

"Immediately, six women seamstresses began making them, and a man helps them by cutting the fabrics, because we can't keep up," Fernández explained.

For now, they are distributing them in the municipalities of Palma Soriano, Mella, San Luis and Contramaestre (where there are two seamstresses working), because they cannot leave after the government's prohibition on traveling from one province to another to avoid further contagion, he added.

They are also providing other assistance to 16 elderly people in the town of Palma Soriano because they are the population most vulnerable to the coronavirus, he explained.

She explained that the bleach being sold in the stores is not enough, "the men who collaborate on this project get bleach and mix it with water according to the amount indicated for hygiene and give it to the elderly for cleaning their homes and personal items," the activist explained.

For Alberto Martínez Fernández, national representative of the Republican Party of Cuba, "any measure taken to help the population protect themselves is insufficient," since in the municipality an entire family was isolated and transferred to the Military Hospital in Santiago de Cuba, where they remain in quarantine.

"We are very worried and are waiting to find out if there are infected people," the activist said.

Martínez added that beyond that family, no one in the municipality has been quarantined and the population is just hoping that there are no other infected people.

A report from Cuba this Friday indicated that there are a total of 80 infected people in the country, while another 1,851 patients remain hospitalized under epidemiological surveillance.

Note from the PRC. Alberto Martínez Fernández is the Provincial Director of Santiago de Cuba and the National Coordinator of Projects for the Republican Party of Cuba.