Granma 138
Lifting Restrictions is Very Dangerous
Lessons from Hokkaido Island to the World:
Lifting Restrictions is Very Dangerous
The region acted quickly and contained the initial outbreak with a three-week quarantine. But when restrictions were lifted, a second wave hit even harder.
April 30, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Masked passers-by in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, on February 26, 2020 Photo: Reuters
The island of Hokkaido in northern Japan is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus infections and deaths, which experts say could have been avoided if the state of emergency had not been lifted too soon. Their experience offers a grim lesson for the next phase of the battle against covid-19, TIME reports.
The region acted quickly and contained the initial SARS-CoV-2 outbreak with a three-week quarantine. But when local authorities lifted restrictions, a second wave of infection hit even harder: less than four weeks later, the island was forced to re-implement the blockade.
Hokkaido reported 38 new cases on Tuesday, bringing its total number of infections to 688, the fifth highest in Japan. Simultaneously, one person died from the virus, bringing the number of deaths on the island to 27.
Chitose Airport, Hokkaido, Japan Photo: Reuters
Success Story
Thus, the island, which was seen as something of a success story for the way it worked to contain, track and isolate the virus, is once again in the spotlight as it struggles to cope with the second wave of contagion.
In late February, Hokkaido became the first place in Japan to declare a state of emergency for covid-19. Schools were closed, large-scale meetings were canceled and people were advised to stay home. The local government pursued the virus with determination, isolating anyone who had had contact with those infected.
The strategy apparently worked, and by mid-March, the number of new cases had been reduced to one or two per day. On 19 March, the state of emergency was lifted and schools were reopened in early April. But only 26 days after the state of emergency was lifted, a new one had to be imposed.
It should be noted that Hokkaido has acted independently of the central Government, which only last week placed Tokyo, Osaka and five other prefectures in a state of emergency.
Lifting the restrictions “is very dangerous”.
“Now I regret that we should not have lifted the first state of emergency,” Kiyoshi Nagase, president of the Hokkaido Medical Association, told TIME. “It really won’t be until next year that we can safely lift these blockades.
Experts say the restrictions on the island were lifted too quickly and too soon because of pressure from local businesses, along with a false sense of security about the declining infection rate.
According to Kazuto Suzuki, a professor at Hokkaido University, the example of the island “shows that what is happening in the U.S.,” where some governors are lifting restrictions, “is very dangerous.
“That’s what we know now: even if you control the first wave, you can’t relax,” Suzuki concluded.
(Source: Russia Today)
Cuba Returns 2000+ Stranded Cubans
Cuba guarantees the return of more than two thousand Cubans stranded in 15 countries
Since the beginning of the spread of the pandemic, Cuban Consulates have provided timely information to Cuban nationals abroad on the evolution of the disease on the island and on consular procedures.
April 27, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Photo: Cubaminrex
Since the announcement of the regulations on travel to and from Cuba, a measure adopted by the Cuban authorities as part of the national plan for the prevention and confrontation of COVID-19 as of March 20, more than 2,000 Cubans have returned to national territory, by air and sea, from more than a dozen countries, among them: Angola, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Nicaragua, Peru, Portugal, Mexico, Panama and Equatorial Guinea, Cubaminrex reported.
These return flights of Cuban citizens and foreigners residing on the island have been organized between the competent Cuban authorities and their counterparts in each of the countries involved, in strict compliance with internationally established standards.
Since the beginning of the spread of the pandemic, Cuban Consulates have provided timely information to Cuban nationals abroad on the evolution of the disease on the Island and on consular procedures. At the same time, the Cuban authorities are permanently monitoring the situation of our nationals stranded in different countries, while efforts are being made, whenever possible, to ensure their return to our country.
Equally commendable has been the action of Cuban residents and members of solidarity organizations with Cuba, who have provided food, medicines and arranged cheap accommodations for Cuban citizens who are waiting to return to our national territory.
Pandemic and Spirituality
Pandemic and Spirituality
The coronavirus forces us to assume a new spirituality and attitude towards reality. Spirituality is the capacity to open oneself lovingly to the other, to nature and to God.
By Frei Betto
April 11, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Life is full of contingencies. On a personal level, failure, loss of friends, illness, death. On the global level, events that no analyst or futurologist foresees, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers in New York. Nor did anyone suspect that in the midst of the 21st century, with all the resources of science, humanity would be threatened by a pandemic.
Who could have imagined that it would come from China, in the form of a contagious disease, the cause of the deepest crisis of capitalism since 2008? According to the Morgan Stanley Composite Index, in a few weeks in the financial market, the shares of the world’s stock exchanges lost $15.5 trillion dollars, more than eight times the GDP of Brazil in 2019!
Will any of those speculators and mega-researchers be affected in their pockets (the most sensitive part of the human body) have become poorer? And yet, before the pandemic, almost all of them refused to make their own contribution to measures to combat hunger and global warming.
That reminds me of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70. There came a time when the rich man offered a pot full of gold in exchange for a piece of bread.
The coronavirus forces us to assume a new spirituality and attitude towards reality. It does not make class distinctions, as does gastroenteritis, which kills thousands of malnourished children. Likewise, it makes no distinctions of sexual orientation, as does AIDS, which affected mostly homosexuals. Now we are all vulnerable, even if the age groups and situations of risk vary.
We are all forced to withdraw into the house and into ourselves, to become detached. This abandonment of routine activities and programmed agendas can uproot or humanize us. Those who are attached to certain habits that, for the moment, are forbidden, such as going to the movies, to the theater, to the club, will rebel. In the case of the elderly, they will not be able to have contact with their grandchildren and will have to stay at home as long as possible.
Air travel has been reduced, national borders have been closed, tourist tours have been canceled. We have no choice but to stay put where we are. Huit-clos [no exit], within four walls. We may discover, like Sartre, why others are hell. And it may be that we rescue family life, dialogue with the family, the care of the house (everything must be sanitized).
It is time to learn to work and study without leaving domestic space. Now we have more time to watch movies on TV, surf the internet, read good books, do research, meditate and pray.
The virus makes everyone equal. But it doesn’t level the playing field. The bourgeois couple, who never took the trouble to go into the kitchen or clean the house, are now forced to roll up their sleeves or risk having one of their employees bring the virus into their home. The recalcitrant does not follow the instructions of the health authorities, and the selfish buy all the alcohol gel and masks in the pharmacy.
I know a young woman who volunteered to do the shopping for the vulnerable neighbors in her building without charging anything for it. Another distributed her phone number so that isolated elderly people would have someone to talk to. A married couple of lawyers go in their car every morning to pick up their cook on the outskirts and take her back in the afternoon, to prevent her from using public transportation. Three neighboring families from a hospital decided to prepare lunches for the nurses and doctors who double their work hours. In Italy, neighbors look out the window in the late afternoon and sing in chorus. Churches, mosques, synagogues open their doors to those who live on the streets and need hygienic care. Finally, there are countless examples of generosity and solidarity in this period when we are all potentially threatened.
These gestures have their source in spirituality, even if it is not of a religious nature. Spirituality is the capacity to open oneself lovingly to others, to nature and to God. And its best teaching is in generosity, the secret of happiness. Rich is not he who has everything, said Buddha, but he who has need of little.
Distances
Distances
By Leidys María Labrador Herrera | leidys@granma.cu
April 3. 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
38 kilometers from the provincial capital city is the town where I was born. Thirty-eight thousand meters. That’s how I calculated the distance at an age when I was fully learning the units of measurement, and that seemed abysmal to me, especially because at that time, that was the furthest point from my home.
And it was until, for the first time, at least with some awareness, I went with my father to the other end of the island, where half of my family tree comes from. It was a long way away. From Las Tunas to Pinar del Rio, speaking in good Cuban, you have to give a tremendous wheel.
That’s how the distances in my life grew, and at some point, the calculation stopped being important. Imagine, if I thought of adding up the kilometers of the times that in five years I traveled the stretch between the balcony of the east and the city of the tinajones, I think I would go around the world more than Jules Verne.
Three years after graduating, I embarked on an iconic yacht, and with part of its crew I have covered almost all the caiman, shortening the distance between my heart and the companions with whom I share these pages every day.
My personal record in terms of space lengths was broken in that air crossing that took me to the country of the Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Elysees, Edith Piaf, Cézanne or the famous Seine River.
However, life is surprising, and in what way. In the blink of an eye, you understand that sometimes the most insignificant distances, those that hardly count in your normal life routine, can make the biggest difference. And it’s not just me, I’m sure that even those for whom my longest distances are just a tiny line on their personal map, have thought of that today.
At the age of 30 and with a certain geography behind me, I have to understand that calculating the distance of one meter, one hundred centimeters, one thousand millimeters very well, can put a barrier between tranquility and uncertainty, indiscipline and responsibility, conscience and the most pernicious ignorance. Because in times of covid-19, one meter can make the difference between life and death.
Public Transportation Makes Adjustments
Public Transport Switches to
Direct Service for Essential Workers
In view of the logical concerns and worries in the population, caused by the paralysis of public transport in the country, Eduardo Rodriguez Davila, Minister of Transport (Mitrans), stressed the importance of understanding, support and discipline towards these provisions, in view of the progress of the new coronavirus
Author: Susana Antón | susana@granma.cu
April 13, 2020 21:04:09
Translated and edited by Merriam Ansara.
Edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The new measures in transport seek to prevent the spread of VOC-19. Photo: Endrys Correa Vaillant
Responding to the logical questions and concern of the population over the suspension of public transportation in the country, the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodriuez Davila, remarked how important it is for people to understand, support and uphold these measures as necessary in the face of advancing COVID-19.
He explained to Granma, that the suspension does not for the moment include state vehicles that are used to ensure the functioning of the economy, nor privately owned personal vehicles which can circulate as needed, so long as they also are not creating traffic jams.
There is still also the movement of cargo, he said, as necessary to support the economy.
He confirmed that the mandatory suspension imposed Saturday, April 11, includes all public transportation both urban and inter-urban, includes both state and privately owned, and includes the support services for state vehicles.
Instead, transportation services have been organized for workers in the medical and health centers, commerce -related services, policing services and others defined by the Defense Councils (Civil Defense) throughout the country as essential activities.
He added that these are for specific workers at specific hours so that they can go and return from their places of work.
He said also that transportation has been guaranteed for all dialysis patients, people undergoing cancer treatments and in other situations of medical urgency. Information telephone lines have been set up at the main health centers in each municipality.
For these services as well, transportation reinforcements have been provided to all of the local defense councils, including ambulances and medi-buses.
He said that all transportation drivers concerned about the situation of their salaries should check with their own work centers which have been put in charge of administering the benefit directives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
In terms of self-employed transporattion workers, Rodriguez Davila said that the current suspension of service applies for the moment to passenger and cargo transportation (including bici-taxis and buggies), and services related to these such as driving instructors and taxi stand managers.
The suspension applies to the operation of vehicles and does not include suspension of related activities such as vehicle repair, bodywork, or tire repair. These can continue so long as it does not lead to any gatherings of multiple individuals and that those involved observe the prescribed infection protection measures.
He said that for any further clarification or needs, workers in these services should direct themselves to the offices from which they have received their licenses.
The MINTRANS minister said he realized that there have had to be huge adjustments from the public transportation of passengers to transportation for designated workers.
All of these newly adjusted services have had to be carried out with strict adherence to measures of zero crowding, everyone wearing facemask, ensuring use of hypochlorite for hands before boarding and complete disinfection of the vehicles after each run.
Each day there will need to be adjustments to improve the new services and to avoid any adverse effects to essential services. He said that instructions had been given to all of the provinces to improve organization of the routes, schedule frequency and other elements that would ensure maximum efficiency of service and conservation of fuel.
He said that MINTRANS was also working with all of the main entities of the central government administration, the defense councils and the state enterprises involved in operation of port-to -transportation to economic distribution so as to guarantee timely distribution of the family ration basket of regular guaranteed goods and other measures to ensure the delivery of food and other basic products to the community.
He remarked that yesterday, Monday, because of the possibity of propagaiion of COVID-19, the Business Group for Automotive Transport Services had decided to close the Schools for Road and Driving Education to avoid gatherings of multiple individuals and had issued an announcement to this effect.
He announced that the deadlines for certificates, license renewals and psychological/physical driver exams for those whose documents were expiring had been extended until services were restarted in the related centers and offices.
Anyone who had already paid for the service at the time of the service suspension, who didn’t wish to continue the service could ask for 100% reimbursement of the amount paid.
Neighborhood Heroines
photo reporting
Neighborhood Heroines (+ videos)
The woman, as always, where they are most needed. The work is enriched by the fruit of her labor
Author: Juvenal Balán Neyra : juvenal@granma.cu
April 6, 2020 18:04:25
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
In the Naroca neighborhood, Boyeros municipality, the dynamics of the current moments of confrontation with the COVID-19, has changed the coming and going of neighbors, the children’s games in the surroundings of the buildings, although some essential services for the population remain vital.
In the apartments the sewing machines are kept in constant movement. Women of all ages spend much of their precious time in front of them. The legs are exercised with the pedal. The eyes are fixed on the passage of the fabric, through the needle, which at a dizzying pace is shaping the nasobuco. Others tidy up and finish them off. In short, there is motivation to create and contribute. It’s time to do.
Photos and videos here:
http://www.granma.cu/fotorreportajes/2020-04-06/heroinas-del-barrio-06-04-2020-18-04-25
Cuban Media Working as Pandemic Advances
In photos: How is the Media Working in Cuba as the Pandemic Advances?
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.
Rebel Radio Photo: Secret Naturality (Latin World)
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.
Periódico Granma Foto: Naturaleza Secreta (Mundo Latino)
Periódico Granma Photo: Naturaleza Secreta (Mundo Latino)
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.
Rebel Radio Photo: Secret Naturality (Latin World)
Rebel Radio Photo: Secret Naturality (Latin World)
Rebel Radio Photo: Rebel Radio
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.
Juventud Rebel Photo: Secret Naturality (Mundo Latino)
“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”.
Juventud Rebel Photo: Secret Naturality (Mundo Latino)
Juventud Rebelde Photo: Juventud Rebelde
Juventud Rebelde Photo: Juventud Rebelde
Source of text and photos: Facebook page of Naturaleza Secreta, an audiovisual project of Mundo Latino
70% Increase in Gender-Based Violence
Chile Reports 70% Increase in Gender-Based Violence During Quarantine
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.
Minister Carolina Cuevas explained that Chilean women need to ask for guidance and help when they are victims of domestic violence. Photo: Taken from Telesur
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.
Global #QuedateEnCasa Campaign
How Did the Global #QuedateEnCasa Campaign Begin?
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.
Photo: Taken from the Internet
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.
Free Distribution of Nasobucos Begins
Free Distribution of Nasobucos Begins
This company belonging to the Ministry of Culture of Cuba, which produces and markets goods for the art industry, is today one of the institutions that have joined the production of nasobucos throughout the country.
By Redacción Cultural
March 23, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Photo: Germán Veloz Placencia
The National Council for the Performing Arts promotes the actions of Tecnoescena, a company belonging to the Cuban Ministry of Culture that produces and markets goods for the artistic industry, and which today is one of the institutions that have joined the production of nasobucos throughout the country.
According to José Martínez, its deputy director, this company is producing this add-on for free distribution, guaranteeing, fundamentally, the national schools of the artistic education system, as well as in the Theater and Dance centers of Havana, in some groups, among which is La Colmenita. Other cultural institutions, whose work will interact with the public,will also benefit, specifically in the area of tourism.
Tecnoescena is joined by three groups of artistic creators from the Cuban Fund for Cultural Goods (FCBC) in Ciego de Avila, who have made available to their province 5,000 nasobucos, made by them.
These timely initiatives are those that reinforce the action of the country’s main organizations, focused on the work of preventing the new coronavirus. (Cultural Editor)