The editorial strategy of every media outlet in Cuba goes hand in hand with the application of strict preventive measures because, as a premise, if there is one thing the people cannot be without, it is information and in order to offer it, one must also be healthy
April 6, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
There are frontline heroes, heroes in white coats.
There are others in the background, behind a microphone or a camera.
There are others who write, ask, speak.
There are anonymous heroes.
Sometimes they’re called journalists, camera operators, announcers, sound recorders, photographers…
In this joint battle against the coronavirus in Cuba, communication is key.
DEALING WITH FALSE NEWS
For Demetrio Villaurrutia, Deputy Director of Radio Rebelde, the first challenge is to inform.
“In a scenario where so much false news appears, the media has the role of guiding the population and increasing the perception of risk; without panic, but with awareness,” he said.
“Even when we are taking all the measures, we are also risking our health. In my case, I think about the family and I know they understand my social role,” he added.
Secret Nature will continue to share the stories behind the scenes of these information heroes.
Yurisander Guevara Zaila, Deputy Director of Juventud Rebelde: “Right now the only thing being talked about in Cuba and in the world is the coronavirus. That is because humanity is experiencing an event like this for the first time. We are engaged in a communications campaign to constantly inform the people about the measures they should take. We have tried to create a journalism that calls for responsibility.
“With the COVID-19 our life changed. It’s true that many of us can’t stop going out because we have to go and buy the products we need in the house, but you can stand in line far away from the other person”.
Source of text and photos: Facebook page of Naturaleza Secreta, an audiovisual project of Mundo Latino
By Mariela Rodríguez Méndez
April 6, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Isolation is an effort for the world economy and subjective, applied with the intention of gaining health and life. Every contagion that is avoided is a way to stop the progression of this epidemic that is costing humanity so much.
Paradoxically, this dramatic moment for the human being is an opportunity to stop the consequent damage of so many other excesses that put at risk the existence of the planet and life or its enjoyment.
Pause in the urgency, the haste, the daily race to fulfill, to win, to be successful, to consume, to be in fashion, etc. A pause from those days with the feeling that time was not enough, that what matters most or is enjoyed was postponed. We are invited to a pause for reflection, reorientation, the encounter with the compass that indicates those little things that make us feel and help us to live. This is also a break longed for by many, even if it is difficult to recognize.
It is a pause that will make us look, listen and speak to those who accompany us in the home. It will be an opportunity to rediscover what unites us with them. Perhaps it is also a time to ask ourselves how we would like to live the next isolation, even if that is chosen in the best conditions of a planet pulsating with life and vigor. Isolation to love, work and create.
By Hugo García
April 7, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Matanzas: Two extraordinary and emergency events took place during the last days of confrontation with COVID-19 at the Mario Muñoz Monroy Hospital’s isolation center.
First, a Russian tourist who had suffered a hip fracture at the hotel where she was staying was successfully operated on. Then, Dayana Almeida Gómez was assisted in giving birth at the same institution, where she remained suspected of carrying the new coronavirus and there was no time to transfer her to the city’s maternity hospital when she went into labor.
A medical team made up of Doctors Ramses Isaac Marrero, Lourdes Gonzalez Cabrera and Noel Rodriguez Ortiz, assisted by staff from that hospital, brought the 22-year-old to full term. She was admitted on April 2 and was transferred to the provincial maternity hospital on Sunday, April 5.
“I named him Mario Ramses, in honor of the doctor from Moncada, whose name the hospital bears, and Dr. Ramses,” says Dayana, a resident of the Ciénaga de Zapata municipality, who entered as a suspicious case and finally she and her baby were diagnosed as negative.
Both the surgical intervention for the foreign tourist and the unexpected birth are samples of the capacity, experience and cohesion of the medical team that works in this isolation center in the city of Matanzas, from which four patients in good health have already been discharged.
The new mother behaved very well and it was a quick delivery, says Ramses: “We had all the conditions in this hospital, even though normally deliveries are never carried out here. Everything went well and the baby weighed 3,250 grams.
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The Chilean Government is preparing a set of measures to expand the network of support for women victims of gender violence from government and business bodies
April 7, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The Ministry of Women and Gender Equality in Chile reported on Monday a 70 percent increase in calls made by women to a domestic violence hotline during the first weekend under quarantine in the country following the health crisis generated by the coronavirus.
The information came to light as part of a study provided by the minister of the portfolio, Carolina Cuevas, who implemented a contingency plan that included special reinforcement of the Fono Orientación 1455 shifts, to protect women who reported being subjected to domestic violence.
The weekend before the quarantine, 532 calls were received, while in the same period, one week later, the number rose to 907. “This significant increase in calls is also a reflection of the fact that there is a need to ask for guidance and help in times when women are spending more time in our homes, possibly with our partners,” Cuevas explained.
For its part, the Public Prosecutor’s Office reported that, although reports of domestic violence have decreased by 18 percent compared to last March, reports of femicide have increased by 200 percent in the same period of time.
The Chilean government is preparing other measures to expand the network of support for women victims of gender violence, such as coordination with public agencies to safeguard care in periods of emergency, increasing the capacity of shelters and a messaging service, via SMS or WhatsApp, so that women can communicate in a “silent” manner that will be implemented in the following weeks.
Cuevas also met with the president of the employers’ union, the Confederation of Production and Commerce (CPC), Juan Sutil, to discuss the impact of the health crisis on women workers. The minister requested that companies provide formal support to women in preventing domestic violence and incorporate the issue into their permanent policies.
In this regard, a group of Chilean women legislators and feminist organizations sent a letter to President Sebastián Piñera, asking him to strengthen measures to prevent violence, to prohibit the sale of alcohol that can trigger violent acts, such as creating immediate action groups and establishing strategies for reporting violence through websites, pharmacies or supermarkets. Gael Yeomans, MP and president of Convergencia Social, said that additional measures should be taken to allow victims of gender-based violence to break out of quarantine if they need help.
A Spanish-language label is spreading rapidly through Facebook and Twitter. Used in serious, funny publications, it is used by professionals to share tips on how to protect themselves from COVID-19 and the citizens of the world when they post photos from their days of isolation, at home, in physical isolation.
April 7, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
This is the famous label #QuedateEnCasa, which – who would imagine it – began as a challenge from the doctors and nurses at the Hospital Clínico in Madrid. They invited all of Spain to become aware of the importance of individual responsibility to avoid infecting other people, according to the Mallorca newspaper.
The challenge, the first and most famous of many launched later by people from all over the world, began with a video available on the official Twitter account of the Public Health of the Community of Madrid that exceeded 250,000 views in five hours. In the audiovisual, the medical staff calls on the population to join a voluntary quarantine and recommends taking responsible measures so as not to collapse the Spanish health system.
According to Europa Press, the promoter of the initiative was surgeon general Sandra García Botella, who came up with the idea “because of the impotence of seeing that the message that is being transmitted through the media is not reaching the people well” (?) “it’s not a vacation, the children don’t have to be in the park, [the young people] don’t have to be staying, they don’t have to go out to the bars,” she said.
She also added that with the youth “it doesn’t work for a politician to go out and give a message, hashtags [labels] work, challenges work.
The campaign, which immediately went viral on social networks, was joined by representatives from the world of sports, entertainment, culture and “influencers. Now there are videos calling for social isolation, such as the one by the Spanish Football Federation. New challenges have appeared to encourage confinement, such as daring to tell a goal, creating recipes with a sporting aroma, doing crossfits with bags of rice, or playing golf with toilet paper, says Marca, one of the most well-known media in the field of sport.
In Italy, they launched a campaign similar to the Spanish #QuedateEnCasa. The authorities resorted to more shocking images to reach their population more effectively. Then the campaign calling for quarantine had to be turned into law to contain the pandemic.
Quarantine is the way to limit the movement of healthy people who may have been exposed to the virus and don’t know it, says the World Health Organization. It usually lasts 14 days and must be done by all people who arrived from affected areas with high transmission of the virus.
Social distancing, on the other hand, is the separation of one meter between one person and another; and is based on the call not to go to public places, as well as to avoid population concentrations.
In the face of the global emergency caused by the new coronavirus that appeared in China at the end of 2019, many have decided to stay home voluntarily as a preventive measure.
By not going to work, not receiving visitors and not using public transport, the risk of contagion is potentially reduced. This type of decision is called voluntary quarantine.
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