Cuba announces reopening of tourism for US travellers

Cuba: Cuba has announced to reopen the arrival of travellers from the United States without any testing requirements from November 15th, 2021. The announcement was made by the Tourism Minister.

The island will permit travellers from around the world to enter, as it wishes to kickstart positively both its domestic and international tourism industries before the new year.

Cuba measured its all-time high of just below 10,000 positive cases in late August, while at present, the island is averaging just about 7,000 cases per day as it struggles against the spread of the Delta variant. The Caribbean island is also noticing progress in the vaccination statistics, till date, 4.6m people in Cuba are fully vaccinated – 41 per cent of its population – while 52 per cent have received first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Cuban government has also made a target to vaccinate 90 per cent of the population by the end of November month this year.

In addition, Cuba is the first country in the world to vaccinate toddlers against the contagious COVID-19 mutant using home-grown jabs that are yet to be approved by the World Health Organization.

The island of an 11.2 million population aims to inoculate all its children before the reopening of schools that have been closed for the most part since March 2020.

The new school year commenced from Monday, but from home via TV programmes, as most Cuban homes do not have internet access. Having completed clinical trials on minors with its Abdala and Soberana vaccines, Cuba kicked off its inoculation campaign for children on Friday, starting with those of 12 years and older.

From Monday, it started distributing doses in the 2-11 age group in the central province of Cienfuegos. Several other nations in the world are vaccinating children from the age of 12, and some are conducting trials on younger kids.